Dawn Zero
by Heir of the void
Summary: The Vers have invaded the Americas, and had successfully occupied much of the landmass. However, the fight is not yet over. Battling from pre-prepared positions and with improvised weapons, the American people, soldiers and citizens alike, wage a brutal war against the Vers invaders. Blood will flow like water from Cape Horn to the Canadian Shield as a proud people refuse to bow.
1. Chapter 1

**Smalltown, Texas**

Jefferson Ablar looked down at his phone. The U.S. Government and the United Forces of Earth were issuing an evacuation advisory, for the entire state of Louisiana and several surrounding counties.

"Hard to believe it's really come to his." Jefferson's best friend, Logan Weathington, said, looking up at the sky. "Who would have thought that we would ever have a war with the Martians?"

The two teens were standing on a hillside, looking up at the sky. Logan sat on the hood of Jefferson's truck, while Jefferson stood a short distance away.

"It's not really so surprising." Jefferson said. "They tried once before. They've been biding their time up in the Satellite Belt, gathering their strength and waiting for an excuse to attack."

"Still." Logan said, shaking his head. "It's just so massive, you know?"

On Jefferson's phone, a map showing the power grid of the entire continental United States, zoomed in on New Orleans, suddenly went black.

"The Castle is down." Jefferson announced. "According to those documents Christina got us, they should be commencing the preparatory bombardment now. Shall we see how they're doing?"

"Yes." Logan said. "Let's"

Jefferson turned up the volume on his cell phone, and opened an app turned to a military broadcast frequency. They listened to static for a few moments, occasionally punctuated by a sharp whine.

"Jamming?" Logan asked, after some time.

Jefferson nodded. "Has to be. Christina sent me something about the Martians loving jamming in the First War. That fits with something I heard about-"

"OH GOD." A voice screamed over the frequency. "THEY'RE KILLING US. WE CAN'T BEAT THESE GUYS. WE'RE INSECTS TO THEM! INSECTS!"

Abruptly, a crashing sound issued from the cell phone, and the broadcast returned to static.

"That doesn't sound good." Logan said.

"No." Jefferson said. "And I just lost a couple bars of signal. There's something fishy going on here. Call the gang. We need to figure out what's going on here."

[x]

"I don't know what's going on here." Christina said. "The internet is in pieces, and I can only find a couple of bullets on the secure Continental Security Network."

"What are they saying?" Lucinda Thompson asked, passing out drinks to the seated members of the group.

"Nothing good." Christina said. "I can't find any casualty reports, and they're ordering a whole Army Group to Louisiana."

"That can't be a good sign." Jefferson said. "I think we need to get out of here."

"What do you mean?" Lucinda said. "We're more than two hundred miles from the Landing Castle. I think that we'd get plenty of warning before the Martians showed up."

"I think Jefferson is right." Logan said. "If we wait until the Evacuation Advisory goes out, we'll be swamped with other refugees. If we get clear now, we won't have to worry about that."

"Guys?" A previously unheard voice said. "We have a problem."

"What is it?" Jefferson said. He owned the house and lived there with Christina as refugees from the Heavens Fall, so it wasn't like their parents could be waking up.

"It's-"

A whooshing sound, like from an airplane zooming overhead, filled the room. As it faded, a massive crash filled the room, shaking the glasses on the table.

"Martian Kataphrakt!" Isabella Maxwell shouted. "We have to get out of here!"

Jefferson bolted to his feet. "Take all three cars. Christina, you ride with me. We need to get the Hell out of here."

"But what about our families!" Lucinda said. "We have to-"

"There's no time." Jefferson said. "We can call them and warm them on the road, but we need to get out of here. Plus, I doubt they missed that."

Christina snapped her laptop shut and started rolling up her charger. "I'm ready to move. We need to get out of here!"

"Fine." Logan said, pulling out his phone and dialing. "We should raid the gun safe before we go. You never know."

"True." Jefferson said. He reached under his shirt and pulled out a key. "Let's go."

[x]

"Remember." Logan said, over the radio, as the cars backed out of the driveway. "Don't use your cell phones once we're on the road. There is a chance they could track them, and they probably won't be much good anyway."

"Got it." Christina said, as Jefferson pulled the car out onto the street.

"Where are we going?" Lucinda said. "I mean-"

"We're heading to the Robert E. Lee National Forest." Logan said. "We'll hit the sporting goods store on the way there and get some camping supplies. We can hide out there until the war is over."

Jefferson reached over and cut the radio microphone. "I don't think that's going to work." He said, glancing at Christina. "You showed me the report. I don't think we're beating the Martians."

"What are you saying?" Christina asked.

Jefferson looked out at the road. "I don't know."

"Then-"

A crashing sound filled the air. Jefferson looked at the rearview mirror. A house behind the convoy exploded, and a Martian robot stepped onto the street.

It was green, and solidly built in a humanoid shape, with glowing silver lines covering its body. It stood at least fifteen meters tall, and had long, clawed hands.

Jefferson slammed on the gas.

The Martian Kataphrakt stepped forward and swung its hands at a house, demolishing it. Then, it turned toward the group of vehicles, its eyes glowing white.

"Scatter!" Christina yelled into the radio as the group approached an intersection. "You know where to go! Don't say it over the radio! Stay alive!"

Jefferson spun the car around a corner, tires screeching. Lucinda's vehicle went the other way, and Isabella's and Logan's vehicles went straight ahead.

As the other vehicles vanished from sight, the Martian Kataphrakt broke into a run. It moved to one side and held out its hand, smashing another house as it ran. It turned the corner after Jefferson and Christina.

"It's following us!" Christina shouted.

"I noticed!" Jefferson said, flooring the accelerator. "We have an edge in straight-line acceleration, but-"

The car slowed down as Jefferson whipped it around a corner dangerously fast. The Kataphrakt also turned the corner, slowing substantially less.

"We need to lead it away from the rest of our friends!" Jefferson said.

"What about us?" Christina asked.

"I'm working on that." Jefferson said. "Is there anything you can do?"

"I can try?" Christina said, opening her laptop. "I'm inserting reports of an enemy Kataphrakt in the area. I'm not sure what it's going to do, but-"

A screaming sound flew by overhead, followed by several explosions. The Martian Kataphrakt in the mirror was engulfed in an explosion, then it vanished from view as Jefferson took the car around a corner.

"What was that?" Jefferson said, as a statico sound, like a repeated electrical discharge, filled the air, followed by more explosions.

"I think the cavalry is here." Christina said. "The military has diverted some attack aircraft to this location."

"I wouldn't count on it." Jefferson said, as the electrical discharge sound returned, along with more explosions. "It doesn't sound like our side is doing very well.

Christina turned on the radio. "Is everyone alright?"

"Rattled but alive." Logan said.

"I'm alright." Lucinda said. "What was that?"

"I'm good." Isabella said.

"That was a Martian Kataphrakt." Jefferson said. "It's like a UFE Kataphrakt, but far more powerful. I think it just wiped out a whole squadron of F-35s."

"How do you know that?" Isabella said. "I mean, they always said at school that-"

"We found something called the Tanegashima Report a couple of years ago." Jefferson said, voice low. "It had been disregarded and thrown out, but we found it while digging through a- Nevermind. Point is, it detailed the power of two Martian Kataphrakts, and described them wiping out a tank battalion, with little difficulty."

"Is that what we're up against?" Isabella asked.

"Uh huh." Jefferson said. "And I think the Martian invasion is going to be successful. And you know what comes after an invasion."

"An occupation." Logan said.

"Right." Jefferson said. "And if there's going to be an occupation of the good old U. S. of A., I'll be damned if I go down without a fight. Now, having seen what we're up against, who's with me?"

"I am." Logan said immediately. "Fuck those Mars bastards."

"I'm in." Lucinda said, after a moment. "I think we need to fight."

There was a long pause.

"I suppose I'll do it." Isabella said. "It's not like we have anywhere to go back to."

"I'm glad to work with you all." Jefferson said. "Now, we need to meet up and make a plan. I propose..."

[x]

"There's definitely a roadblock." Christina said, walking back into the women's restroom of the rest stop. "And they're definitely Vers. They have a troop carrier aircraft I don't recognize, and they're carrying guns that look weird. They've turned back three separate vehicles since I started watching."

"How do we know they don't have death rays?" Isabella asked. "You saw that Kataphrakt. I don't-"

"I saw them used." Christina said slowly. "A family didn't want to comply. They shot them all, including the children. They're regular gunpowder weapons, or closed enough."

"Okay." Logan said, hefting an assault rifle. "How do we beat them?"

"I think I have an idea." Jefferson said, looking at the cell phone pictures Christina had sent him. "Simple ambush tactics. They're set up to block people coming down the interstate, and they're got barricades to protect them from fire coming from that direction. But it doesn't look like they're very prepared for fire from there directions. And why would they be? The whole army is headed to Louisiana to fight the Landing Castle, and there aren't any comms up around here."

"So, how does that help us?" Lucinda said. "They've still got that big plane thing."

'It's a transport." Jefferson said. "And we have this baby."

He hefted his sniper rifle. It was a massive affair, with a .65 caliber barrel, a recoil dampener array, and a (pre-Vers) military grade scope.

"It was pretty cheap to get this thing, what with Kataphrakts being all the rage these days." Jefferson said. "And I'm willing to bet that it can put a hole in the engine of that flier. We'll attack from behind, outside the firing arc of its guns, and take out the engine so they can't take off and strafe us."

"That's... crazy." Logan said. "How are we going to-"

"Did I mention I have a few rounds of AP ammo?"

There was a moment of silence. "Where did you get that?" Isabella asked.

"A girl has her ways." Christina said.

"Fine." Logan said. "So we snipe the engines. That takes care of the plane. What about the Vers soldiers?"

"They aren't wearing rigid armor on their faces or the edges of their chests." Jefferson said. "I'm willing to bet that that won't stand up to the AP rounds from our high-caliber hunting rifles, and it won't stop the kinetic force from any form of bullet. Hit them there, and we should be able to take them down."

Logan whistled. "That's quite the gamble. I mean-"

"I've seen all of you shoot." Jefferson said. "I think we can do this. If we can't clear that barricade, everyone will be trapped in Vers territory. So we have to do this."

"Alright." Logan said. "You've convinced me. Anyone else got any problems?"

[x]

Jefferson's crosshair hovered over the thrust port of the Vers flier.

"Remember everyone." Christina said. "As soon as you hear a shot, start firing on the Vers soldiers. We need to drop them before they know what's going on. If we start taking heavy return fire, retreat."

"Rodger."

"Got it."

"Understood."

"I hear you." Jefferson muttered. "I'm taking the shot in five seconds.

There were about twenty-five Vers soldiers manning the roadblock, spread out across the interstate, standing or crouching behind barricades, rifles at the ready.

In the wrong direction, of course.

Jefferson considered what he was about to do. He and his people were, in three seconds, going to kill. Not human beings, according to the enemy propaganda, but everyone knew that was bullshit. They were people, just like everyone else, and presumably they had souls, too.

Jefferson really hoped they had sous. If they didn't, he couldn't send them to hell.

It takes 37 muscles to frown. And 22 muscles to smile. And three to make a proper trigger pull.

At that moment, Jefferson used twenty-six muscles.

The gunshot rang out, and the bullet left the barrel of the rifle at more than one thousand meters per second, and struck the engine nozzle of the Vers flier before the sound of its firing reached it.

A cloud of sparks shot out of the engine nozzle of Sky Carrier, along with a whine of tearing metal. As the action of his rifle cycled and ejected the casing of the first round, Jefferson readjusted his aim and fired at the same engine nozzle a second time.

Moments after he opened fire, the rest of his friends did as well. Two Vers soldiers dropped like dolls with their stings cut, as armor piercing rifle rounds punched through the flexible material of the armor covering their necks. Another man fell, three rifle rounds piercing his helmet.

As the Vers soldiers shouted in confusion and moved around, looking for new cover and turning their rifles on the new threat, Jefferson adjusted his aim and fired on the second engine nozzle.

As four more Vers soldiers went down, the remainder brought their weapons to bear on the group of teens. Their fire was surprisingly poorly aimed, and none of it came very close to hitting any of the group. The teens were engaging from more than half a kilometer using telescoping scopes dialed in for the range. The Vers soldiers were firing at muzzle flashes.

One of the Vers soldiers walked down the ramp of the Sky carrier, carrying a heavy machine gun. Jefferson adjusted his aim and shot the man in the center of the chest, his .65 caliber round punching straight through the man's advanced body armor.

He dropped, and another Vers soldier scrambled for the gun, mouth working frantically. Christina shot him in the face with her hunting rifle.

Within a few seconds, there were only five surviving Vers soldiers. Then the Sky Carrier started its engines.

"Take cover!" Jefferson shouted. "They're taking off!"

As the group began to scatter, Jefferson put one last round into the engine of the enemy aircraft, then began to retreat.

The group of teens ran away, and the engines of the Vers Aircraft began to cycle upwards. Purple energy began to jet out of the engine nozzles as the aircraft began to lift off of the ground.

But something was wrong. The engine pressure was far below what it was supposed to be, and so was the exhaust velocity. The pilot frowned, then turned up the energy of the drive.

Heat began to spread throughout the engine, and the engine pressure skyrocketed.

Then it exploded. The blast ripped through the engine compartment of the troop transport sky carrier, sending the wings pin wheeling through the air as the cockpit and troop compartment crumpled like tinfoil. The blast washed outwards, smashing the concrete of the interstate and vaporizing the bodies of the Vers soldiers.

Jefferson blinked as the sound of the explosion washed over him. He certainly hadn't been expecting _that_. He swung his sniper rifle to his shoulder and raised is radio. "All units, sound off."

"I'm alive." Logan said.

"I'm good." Christina said.

"All clear over here." Lucinda said.

"I'm alright." Isabella said.

"Thank God." Jefferson breathed. "We did it. We took them out."

"Watching Vers motherfuckers drop." Logan said.

"But I don't think that we can get the cars through that." Christina said. "What are we going to do?"

"We have to take the cars as far as we can, then continue on foot." Jefferson said. "We need to bring as much supplies as we can carry, then see if we can find another vehicle on the other side."

"Roger that." Logan said.

[x]

So the group walked. They returned to their cars, took them down the interstate to the still-smoking crater, and then unloaded as much food and ammunition as they could carry and took off on foot. Twice, they saw U.S. Jets screaming toward the combat zone.

They never saw any aircraft returning.

They didn't talk much as they walked. They had just _killed_ people. Jefferson kept his eyes down as he walked, considering.

The Vers were invaders, and they had stated several times that they believed that the Terrans were inferior vermin, and that they deserved to be ruled by the Heirs of Aldnoah, best case scenario. Some of them called for the extermination of all Terrans.

Jefferson didn't see how everyone couldn't see it. It was like Hitler and the Jews, and the Vers wouldn't stop until they had conquered the inferior lifeforms, or were stopped by force. Every single person on Earth should be standing ready to fight the Vers, not preparing to run, or lie supine before the invaders.

It was tragic that he had taken a life, but for Jefferson, that paled in comparison before his anger at what the Vers had done. They had caused the Heaven's Fall, killing half the population of Earth. Now, they were coming to finish the job.

The group was in a lightly inhabited area outside Smalltown, heading for the sporting goods store the next town over. Now, however, it would take them days to reach it on foot, days that they might not have.

Jefferson had lead his friends into this, and he was responsible for what happened to them. He needed to figure out a way for them to survive, or at least do some damage before they-

"Hey, do you see that?" Isabella said, pointing at something in the forest to the left of them.

"What is it?" Lucinda asked, looking at the white covering spread between several trees.

"I think it's a parachute." Logan said.

The group ran across the road, into the forest and toward the object. As they drew closer, they saw that there was an object handing a few feet off the surface of the forest, suspended by several lengths of cord.

"I think there's a person in there." Christina said.

Jefferson raised his rifle and approached the downed pilot. There was a U.S. Air Force star emblazoned on his helmet, and he appeared to be unconscious. As Logan and Christina advanced towards the pilot, Jefferson stepped up to the man and began undoing his straps holding the man to his seat.

As they undid the straps, the pilot groaned and began to stir. Christina had him out of the ground in a flash, and Isabella was taking his vitals.

"Ouch." The man muttered. He opened his eyes and looked around. "Who are you guys?"

"We're friends." Lucinda said. "You're American, right?"

"Of course I am." He said. "But why are you people picking me up. Shouldn't that be an Army job?"

"The army has bigger problems." Jefferson said. "Like the fact that the Vers are kicking our assess."

"They are?" The pilot said. "Damnit. I hoped I'd be shot down for something. How soon can we get back to friendly lines?"

"That... may pose a problem." Logan said. "See, we just shot up a Vers roadblock a few miles back.

"They've come this far?" The pilot exclaimed. "How?"

"This looks like an airmobile operation." Jefferson said. "As near as we can figure, the Vers smashed the initial response force, and then sent a Kataphrakt and ground forces out to secure the area."

"Worse than I expected." The pilot said. "I'm Major Tom Kapperman. Nice to meet you all. I wish it could have been under better circumstances."

"Likewise." Lucinda said.

"Do you people know where we are?" Major Kapperman said. "Because... well, where are we?"

Logan pulled up a map saved on his phone and zoomed in of east Texas, then again on the area north-west of Smalltown. "Somewhere around here." He said.

"Really? Are you sure?" Major Kapperman said. "Because if we are, then I might just have something that can help us."

"Can you walk?" Jefferson asked.

"I'm fine." Kapperman said, standing up out of his handing seat and taking a step forward.

He didn't look too drunk.

"Ok." Jefferson said. "So where are we going?"

"South-west of here." Kapperman responded. "It should be about five miles away."

Jefferson rolled his eyes. "Let's move out, people."

[x]

**Robert E. Lee National Forest**

It is important to note that, of the five members of Jefferson's group, none of them were accustomed to long walks with heavy loads. Thus, when Kapperman finally called a halt, all of them were exhausted.

"Are we there yet?" Isabella asked.

Jefferson had a similar sentiment, but he didn't say anything. For everyone's sake, he needed to stay strong.

"It should be right around here." Kapperman said, pulled a device out of his pocket.

The group was standing in Robert E. Lee National Forest, miles away from the nearest road. The group looked strangely at Kapperman as he walked through the forest, making adjustments to the small device he was holding.

"Here it is." Kapperman said, pointing at a gap between the roots of a tree. "It's a bit of a squeeze, but we can make it. It gets wider. I should go first."

Kapperman dropped to his hands and knees and started crawling into the gap. Within moments, he had disappeared. "You can come in now." He called, his voice echoing out of the hole.

Jefferson was next. He crawled into the hole. It was dark, but it did widen rapidly as he advanced. Then a door irised open in front of him, revealing Kapperman, his flight suit slightly dirty, standing in a well-lit corridor.

Continuing forward, Jefferson found himself on a sort of slide, which deposited him gently on the floor of the space. He looked around.

He was standing in a concrete lined space, with tile on the floor, like the inside of an office building parking garage. "What is this place?" He said, looking up at Kapperman.

"I've heard about these, but I didn't think we ever actually built any." He said. "This is a Werewolf bunker. It's intended to enable guerrilla operations in case of an enemy occupation."

"What?" Logan said, as he slid down into the underground base. "What about guerrilla operations?"

"This." Jefferson said. "Is exactly what we need. Let's take a look around."

[x]

Eight flights of stairs down, they found the main hall of the Werewolf base. It was a large space, filled with crates stacked nearly to the ceiling. Tables were set up with chairs stacked on top of them, and smaller crates underneath them.

"Wow." Lucinda said, threading her way through the maze of crates and boxes. "What is all this stuff?"

"Food and weapons, mostly." Christina said, looking at some files she had downloaded on her phone. "There are four armories with more stuff off this room, a medical center, a training room, a larder, a motor pool, and more."

"How are we supposed to get vehicles out of here?" Logan asked.

"There are tunnels." Christina said. "Apparently, this is a hub base. There are more, smaller catches scattered throughout the area, and other bases like this scattered throughout the country."

"Wow." Lucinda said. "How did they build all of this?"

"I don't know." Kapperman said. "But someone put a lot of time and money into making sure that we'd be prepared to fight on our knees."

"And we should make use of it." Jefferson said. "But first, I think we need to eat and hit the sack. Plus, we want to hit occupying forces, not the main Vers line of battle."

"They'll still be here in the morning." Kapperman said. "I'll take first watch. You guys get some rest."

[x]

**New Orleans, Vers Occupied Territory**

Count Rhlelotam of the Vers Empire looked at his assembled Kataphrakt pilots. Eleven of the twelve of them were present, and all had distinguished themselves greatly in the past eighteen hours since his castle had made planetfall.

He possessed a truly extraordinary number of Kataphrakts, thanks to the vast personal wealth his father had invested in the Vers Empire prior to its split from Earth. It was for that reason that when he had claimed the right to conquer this once-great nation, he had not been contested by any of the other Counts.

The pathetic primitives had opened their assault on his castle with an artillery barrage from hundreds of tubes, lasting nearly a quarter of an hour. His point defense officers and systems had performed superlatively, intercepting upwards of ninety-seven percent of the shells directed at his Castle. The thick armor and powerful shields of the Castle had seen to the rest, with only minor damage.

When the Americans had launched a massive naval missile strike on his Castle, actually piercing his shields in a few places, he had finally ordered his pilots to sally forth and destroy the enemy.

When he did, the enemy's resistance was even more pathetic than expected. His men and woman had only destroyed a few hundred enemy machines, many of them obsolete tanks. It was not doubt that the now-weak Americans were afraid of facing the full might of the Vers Empire head-on.

Whatever it was, it was working against them. He had conquered most of the state of Louisiana and southern Mississippi, and his pilots were even now carving a chunk out of Eastern Texas.

He opened a map of North America. It was clearly scared by Heaven's Fall, with small chunks missing on both coasts, a large lake in the center of the 'Great' Plains, and almost no people in the coastal region. Once boasting a population of over three hundred million, it now barely had a population of two hundred million.

Still, they were capable of raising a large, if not formidable, army. Most of which was still intact north, east, and west of his position.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Vers." He said, turning to face his pilots. "We face a large task if we are to dominate this continent and enslave the vermin who inhabit it. However, I believe you are all capable of completing this task. Out Kataphrakts are the best and most numerous of all the Orbital Knights, and we face a weak, pathetic enemy."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "Once, they stood astride the globe. They discovered the Hypergate, and they believe that many of us trace our heritage to their nation. However, now, they lie, weak, before our invasion force. They tremble, refusing to meet us in their full strength such that we may destroy them. Even now, Alaish and his Gordii rampage through the greatest state of the Union of Fools that opposes us, Capturing territory as he pleases."

Rhlelotam turned to face the youngest of his pilots, a well-endowed young woman with long blue hair and beautiful, delicate features. "Linaurulotla!"

"Yes sir!" She said, snapping into a salute.

"Go forward to the area Alaish has captured, and ascertain the strength of the enemy, and then destroy them!"

"Yes sir!" She said again. "Rules of engagement, sir?"

Rhlelotam burst out laughing, actually doubling over in a manner most unfitting a Count of Vers. He continued for several seconds, until he began to get the sense that his pilots were feeling that the situation was awkward.

"Whatever gave you the notion that there were such things as rules in warfare?" Rhlelotam said.

"It was just something I read." Linaurulotla responded. "There was this group called the Nazis, and they-"

"Enough." Rhlelotam said. "If it's Terran, kill it. Are those sufficient rules of engagement for you?"

"Yes sir." She said, glancing away. "I will perform your will upon the battlefield."

"Very good." Rhlelotam said. "You are dismissed. The rest of you may rest. We resume our offensive on the marrow."

[x]

Linaurulotla, or Lin, as she preferred to be called, stepped her Kataphrakt forward and on to the carrier platform of the Sky Carrier. He Kataphrakt, Avernus, stood thirteen meters tall, barely taller than a UFE machine.

However, size wasn't everything. Her Jet-black machine had an overpowered Aldnoah Drive, capable of powering a potent motive assembly and energy joints, as well as an array of thrusters allowing it to make long, sweeping jumps. It could even run along the side of a skyscraper for short period of time, and it was protected by an energy shield that was capable of absorbing a large amount of damage before being overwhelmed. A pair of Energy Knives and a powerful array of energy cannons rounded out her arsenal.

She sighed. She wished that life were more like one of the stories she had read as a child. True, she was the pilot of a nigh-invulnerable war machine, but there were no heroes in the world. Or at least there were no heroes on the Castle that was her world.

Ever since she was old enough to think about such things, she had wished for a gallant knight to sweep her away on horseback. However, as she grew, she had come to realize that she was the closest thing to a Gallant Knight there was among the Knights of Vers. She was on her own, and she always would be.

As the Sky Carrier launched and sky opened up before her, she looked around in awe at the world around her. The Earth was so beautiful, so different from the Castle where she had lived her life. As the blue sky opened up around her and she saw a sunset for the first time in her life, she wondered what the people of Earth were like.

It was a shame that she would have to kill them.


	2. Chapter 2

**I run on feedback, people. The war effort to continue this story cannot be maintained without YOUR input. Terra needs YOU, citizen!**

**[x]**

**Werewolf Base**

That morning, thirty hours since the Vers invasion, the six people in the Werewolf bunker convened for a meeting. They stood at a table in the central meeting hall, looking at a holographic board showing a map of the United States.

They had moved some of the crates of supplies, but the bunker was so packed with just about everything imaginable that it was hard to find places to put everything. As a result, it was somewhat cramped around the table.

"Alright." Christina said. "Since they landed here, the Vers have conquered a large chunk of Eastern Texas, a roughly ovalular area stretching from Dallas to Houston. Neither major urban center has yet come under attack, but Vers forces are flying in hourly to reinforce the pocket, if it could be called that, and they appear to be massing to attack both areas. In the East, they have captured most of Louisiana and Mississippi, and are pressing on Little Rock, Arkansas in the North, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the East. They could break through to connect with the forces in the pocket we currently occupy at any time, though they have not yet done so."

"Excellent analysis, Christina." Kapperman said. "The situation is grim, but it's not hopeless. We have three army groups massing in the north, and two in the east and west. We should be able to bloody their noses, at the very least."

"What makes you think they'll fare any better than the army group that engaged the Landing Castle?" Logan asked.

"Hope springs eternal." Kapperman said. "Now, what we need to do is consider our next move. We have to weight each of our strikes for the maximum damage, as we can't attack too often. Now, we have quite a few resources, but the most interesting are the-"

"Personal Armor Units." Jefferson said. "Suits of synthetic muscle, heavy armor, powerful servos, and thrusters. They were initially designed for boarding operations and urban combat, but eventually scrapped in favor of the Kats. However, they're durable, powerful, and mobile. Exactly what we need."

"Right." Christina said. "The problem is piloting them. Or rather, operating them. I don't think piloting is the right word. Anyway, some of the Kat skills we picked up in school should be useful in using them, but we still have to learn the basics."

"Luckily, we have simulators." Kapperman said. "But learning them will take time."

"I propose that we hit a Vers target, then bunker down here until the Vers advance further." Jefferson said. "Christina, Lucinda, what do you have?"

"The Vers are landing transport aircraft in Smalltown and the surrounding areas, and using transport vehicles to move the cargo and troops landed north and south to the staging areas."

"Alright. So, these transport aircraft. Could we use a Stinger to bring them down?"

"With the ones we have here, it would take a couple of hits." Christina said. "But it could be done."

"Excellent." Jefferson said. "Now, what I'm proposing is..."

[x]

**Robert E. Lee National Forest**

Christina waited standing in a thicket of trees, looking at her phone. The Vers aircraft had a large heat signature, and they had a fairly elaborate sensing unit set up to give the group some early warning on the incoming aircraft.

It was autumn, but the leaves had yet to turn. The dominating color of the forest was a dark green, and a sense of foreboding filled the air, as if the world itself were waiting for something.

As a bloom of heat appeared on the screen, shaped like a deformed potato. Christina tapped it and began to run an analysis algorithm. She glanced at Jefferson as she waited for the result.

"It's a heavy transport flier." She said, as the results came in. "Its flying heavy. I think we've got a winner."

"Understood." Jefferson said, speaking into his radio. "Start breaking down the heat scanner. Everyone else, get ready to fire."

As Jefferson returned his radio to his belt, he raised his FIM-92 Block III Stinger to his shoulder. The weapon was a miracle of the American engineering of yesteryear, updated to fight just as lethal as ever on modern battlefields. Through the upgraded unit weighted more than forty pounds, it had an effective range of more than three miles, and a flight ceiling of more than twelve thousand feet. It carried a heavy warhead that combined an enhanced penetrator with a powerful fragmentation explosive, designed to penetrate a target, then shred it from the inside.

It was a beautiful weapons system, and so was its user.

"Fire on my mark." Jefferson said, raising the weapon to his shoulder. "Three. Two. One."

"Mark."

With a thump, the missile was ejected out of the barrel of the launcher and up into the air. A second later, the motor ignited, sending the rocket screaming into the sky. "Move, move, move!" Jefferson shouted.

Within seconds, the team had vanished back into the forest.

[x]

The pilot of the Vers transport aircraft sighed, looking out at the blue sky surrounding his craft. He had looked forward to the invasion of earth for a long time, but now that it was here, it was surprisingly boring. He didn't have a high affinity for the Aldnoah drives that powered the Kataphrakts, and he wasn't an infantryman, so he wasn't expecting nonstop excitement, but he wasn't expecting it to be so... peaceful.

A red indicator appeared on his screen. He looked down at it. What was it?

Four more red lights appeared. His threat receiver began to scream, a sound that her had never heard outside of drills before. He started flipping the switches to engage the countermeasures, but-

"Captain." The lieutenant commanding the embarked infantry said. "What's going on?"

His aircraft shook, and he felt a shudder run through the airframe. A damage indicator appeared on his screen, showing damage to the left wing of his plane. What was going on? Was he under attack?

Then the next four missiles struck, and his controls went black.

As the pilot frantically tried to restart the power systems of the aircraft, he felt his stomach begin to drop. Why did they have to come here? Why couldn't they have just stayed in orbit-

Then his aircraft plowed into a hill and exploded, and he knew no more. 

[x]

Christina watched as Jefferson bought the vehicle to a halt. The black truck showed some signs of wear as they pulled into the tunnel, over which ran a bike trail. It was scant cover, but it would be enough to hide the vehicle from aerial search.

"I think we made a clean getaway." He said. "Unless they're tracking us with satellites."

"They can't be." Christina said. "The remaining Landing Castles are too high, and anything smaller gets shot down by the Strategic Laser Sites. Besides, they don't cooperate. One Count won't share information on Partisans in another Count's territory without compensation."

"Good." Jefferson said. "Now, are you ready for part two?"

Christina smiled. "Of course I am."

"Then let's go. We have a long walk."

The two teens climbed out of the car. Christina considered Jefferson as they did so. He was a tall young man, with short, raven-black hair with bright green eyes. She supposed he was handsome.

Comparatively, Christina was shorter, with brown hair and rather plain looks. She supposed that they made an odd group.

Jefferson walked around to the back of the pickup truck and opened up the back of the covered bed, then pulled out a Javelin anti-tank missile launcher and raised it to his shoulder, the long, olive drab tube bending in nicely with his camouflage shirt. "You ready to rock?"

[x]

Corporal Taugo of the Vers Imperial Forces sighed as he drove his transport vehicle along the lonely Texas road. He was excited that the invasion of Earth had finally begun. The Terrans had murdered his beloved Princess Asseylum, and he could never forgive them for that. He wished he was a high enough rank to pilot a Kataphrakt, or at least physically able enough to be in the infantry. Then he could really exact some revenge on the Terrans.

He drummed his fingers on the controls. He would have to make do with simply supplying the invasion forces. It was a worthy task; after all, no army could run without supplies.

Then the vehicle at the head of the convoy exploded. Taugo slammed on the brakes and looked around frantically, searching the surrounding terrain for attackers.

[x]

Logan looked down the collimating sight of his RPG-36, drawing a bead on the Vers convoy one hundred yards away. The Vers trucks were ugly, squat things, shaped like beetles crawling along the ground, with a small cockpit for the driver and a massive, bulbous cargo bay that barely fit in the lane of the road.

Jefferson and Christina had disabled the lead Drone Crusher, a dense, remote-controlled hovercraft vehicle, with a Javelin, and now it fell to the four remaining members of the group to destroy the rest of the vehicles with their RPGs.

He pulled the trigger. A rush of hot gas shot out the back of the tube, and the rocket shot forward, lancing toward the Vers transport ahead of him. The rocket flew, stabilized by fins controlled by basic microchips, into the side of the Vers transport. Its five-pound HEAT warhead detonated, boring through the armor of the Vers tank and bursting into the cargo compartment in a shower of superheated metal.

As the vehicle exploded, Logan dropped his launcher tube and grabbed a second one. He aimed it quickly at a second Vers truck as more of the enemy vehicles exploded, then fired.

His second shot was true, destroying the Vers transporter and its load of precious cargo. As Corporal Taugo was immolated, the attackers sank back into the forest, leaving the convoy of Vers trucks to burn, flames rising into the sky, a small act of revenge against the marauding invaders.

[x]

**Satellite Belt**

Commander Walter O'Kane walked down the gently curving hallway of Destiny Base, watching as a door opened to show him his new command. The boots of his void suit clicked neatly against the sterile white walls and floors of the base, and the indescribable scent of countless cycles of recycling filled the air.

He was a tall man, young for a submarine commander, especially in the stagnant Post-Vers navy. He had close-cropped black hair, bright blue eyes, and the blood of veteran submariners flowing through his veins from both sides of his family.

Of course, his new command was not a submarine at all, but something completely different. The airlock doors opened fully, revealing a long black shape. It was still partially obscured by framework but enough of it was visible to make out its shape.

It looked vaguely like a shark, complete with a fin-shaped dorsal sensor mast and heat radiator array and a pair of ventral stabilization arrays. The comparison only really broke down toward the aft of the vessel, where instead of a powerful fin, the ship had a large aperture for its main drive, and with the pair of engine pods mounted forward on either side of the widest portion of the vessel.

She was the _USS Odysseus_, and she may have been the sole hope of Humanity.

"Captain?" A voice said.

"Yes?" O'Kane said, turning toward the speaker. He was a young man in a Navy uniform, bearing the pips of a lieutenant.

"I'm your weapons and tactical officer, sir." The young man said. "Lieutenant Von Hayek, sir."

"Good to meet you." O'Kane said, holding out his hand.

"Likewise." Von Hayek said, taking his captain's hand and shaking. "I've been sent to show you aboard the ship. We'll be getting underway shortly, so if you'd come right this way..."

"So soon?" O'Kane said.

"Yes, sir." Von Hayek said. "We're worried about the Vers finding this place, so we want to get the ships out as soon as we can."

"Ships?" O'Kane said. "I thought that the _Odysseus_ was the only one."

"We actually have three." Von Hayek responded. "_Odysseus_, _Perseus_, and _Siegfried_. No one on Earth is allowed to know that there is more than one."

"Interesting." O'Kane said. "Mixing mythologies a bit there, though."

"And that's not all." Von Hayek said. "We built a ship for the British and for the Russians. The _Victory _and _Georgy Pobedonosets_ respectively. That's five _Odysseus_-class destroyers on our side."

"Wow." O'Kane said. "I know were losing on the ground, but we just might have a chance out here in the Black after all."

"Yes, sir." Von Hayek said, pointing at a stairway leading up into the ship. "Now, if you would board the vessel, Captain?"

O'Kane stepped forward, climbing up the stars, to a massive door cut in the ship's armor hull. The ship had two hulls, actually, an outer armor hull and an inner pressure hull. He stepped forward, walking down the short corridor leading to the airlock leading into the pressure hull.

As he waited for the airlock to cycle, he considered what he had read about the ship.

The primary armament of the _Odysseus_-class was ten centerline torpedo tubes, railguns capable of accelerating a large Mk. XVI torpedo carrying a W88 warhead to a considerable velocity, getting it clear of the ship to enable the torpedo to ignite its own drive and seek a target. Secondary armament was an array of lasers that could also be used as point defense, and the tertiary armament was the railguns that covered the hull for point defense duty.

The primary thing keeping the sixty-four men and eight officers that made up her crew alive was the extensive stealth system covering the hull. For a destroyer like this, Stealth was life. If no Vers bullets came within ten miles of the hull, O'Kane would be a happy man.

Secondary defense was provided by virtue of the Structural Integrity Fields that hardened both hulls of the vessel. The scientists of Earth had yet to crack the secrets of the Force Field technology the Vers Empire employed, but they had provided the Structural Integrity Field. There had been no opportunity for a full-scale, maximum stress test, but the mockup tests indicated that it would be quite durable.

The STI was employed to strengthen a hull consisting of super ferroceramic plating, even stronger, and of course more expensive, than that employed by the Kataphrakts of Earth.

Everything else was triple redundant, allowing the ship to limp home even if badly damaged. The Odysseus had powerful weapons, stealthy construction, and a stout hull.

Just about the only thing she was missing were lifeboats.

The door opened, and five men and one woman saluted O'Kane.

"Welcome aboard, sir." The woman said. "I am Lieutenant Commander Freya Von Bismarck. I will be your executive officer for this patrol."

O'Kane pursed his lips. He had been told that the crew was all male, intentionally selected for a 'lack of tendency towards romantic entanglements' during a long cruise. O'Kane hadn't expected a female executive officer.

"I was too good for them to refuse." Freya said. "They let me in, though I have heard no end of the bitching. Sir."

"Alright." O'Kane said. "What about the rest of you?"

"Lieutenant Eric Kranz, Chief of Engineering." A freckled-faced young man who didn't look old enough to be a college graduate, let alone a lieutenant, said.

"Lieutenant Ryan Blackwell." Another man said. "Sensors and Stealth Officer."

"Lieutenant Anthony Anderson." A third man said. "Chief of Medicine and Personnel."

"Lieutenant Jerrod Harding." Said another. "Communications and Intelligence officer."

Ensign Ethan Carry." The last man said. "Auxiliary officer."

"Very good." O'Kane said, then cleared his throat.

He withdrew a folded piece of paper from his pocket and opened it, then began to read. "Under the authority of the Congress and People of the United States of America, I hereby assume command of this vessel, as ordered."

"Assumption of command is acknowledged." Freya said. "Your orders, my Captain?"

"Prepare for immediate departure from Destiny Base." O'Kane said. "Ensure that all needed and supplementary materials are aboard, then prepare for departure."

'Yes, sir!"

[x]

O'Kane sat at the helm of his vessel, strapped in for microgravity. They still had gravity from the rotation of the station, but that wouldn't last?

"All departments, confirm clear for departure." Freya said.

"Engineering is ready. Drive is standing by."

"Helm is ready."

"Navigation is ready."

"Tactical is ready."

"Sir." Freya said. "We are clear for launch."

"Launch." O'Kane said.

"Launching."

The last of the umbilicals connecting the ship to Destiny base detached, and the ship began to slide forward. She accelerated as she slid down the rails, until she was clear of the dock and floating into the void.

In the CIC of the _Odysseus_, O'Kane could feel himself begin to float as the ship left the rotation of the base.

"Execute cold gas burst." O'Kane said. "Ten degrees north, ninety degrees west, forty-five degrees down. Duration, ten seconds."

"Executing." The helmsman said, pressing several buttons. "Ten seconds, aye."

The ship began to hum as its Counter Mass Fields activated. They reduced the effective mass of the ship, while increasing the effective mass of the fuel expelled from the thrusters, greatly increasing the thrust provided.

O'Kane felt the tug on his body as the ship accelerated slightly. In a few hours, they would be far enough away from Destiny Base to be able to open up with their main drive without endangering the security of the facility.

As the vessel drifted through the Black, O'Kane opened his orders and began to review them. He was to proceed, with his vessel, to the space between Earth and Mars and intercept shipments sent from the Vers Empire to reinforce the Orbital Knights.

It would be a formidable task. The Martians had a massive fleet of transport vessels, though surprisingly few interplanetary warships. He supposed that they had always taken their superiority in the Void as a given.

O'Kane smiled. He would change that notion very quickly.

Seven hours ago, earthbound telescopes had detected a convoy of Vers merchant leaving the Red Planet and heading for earth. O'Kane called up a projection of their route on his display. He fingered the route they would take for best speed, then traced the second best route with his finger.

"When we get the drive online." He said, tapping the point where they intersected. "Proceed here. We'll take our first bite of the Martians there. I want the entire convoy wiped out. Von Bismarck, you have the con."

"Yes, sir." Freya said, saluting from her station.

O'Kane stood up and walked off the bridge. He wanted to inspect his starship.

[x]

**Werewolf Base**

Jefferson looked up at the Personal Armor Unit training machine. It looked like some kind of demonic spider with each limb attached to a major plate of bone white armor, with an oversized visor over the helm.

"That's it?" He said.

"That's it." Kapperman said. "You guys just climb in it and we start the simulation."

"Alright." Jefferson said, stepping up to the trainer. "Like this..."

The armor opened as he stepped up to it. Gingerly, he lowered his legs into the sockets of the armor. As his soles contacted the gel layer of the armor, the rest of the suit began to take shape around him. He was entombed in darkness for a moment as the faceplate locked into place, then the faceplate activated and the scene shifted to a tranquil forest, and he found that he could move almost freely. There was a slight resistance to each of his movements, like there was something pushing back against him.

"A company of Vers soldiers is holed up in a high school ahead of you." Kapperman's voice said. "Take them out, but take your time. Don't forget your jetpack."

Jefferson crouched, then jumped, sending a mental command through his neural interface to activate his jetpack. It began to thrust as he rose into the air, sending him higher. As he reached the peak of his jump, he increased the thrust output, he rose higher.

Cutting the thrust before he breached the canopy of the forest, Jefferson dropped back down to the ground. He heard the sounds of the rest of his group performing similar experimentation in the distance.

Next, he began to run forward, his feet falling heavy as he advanced. He jumped with a running start, activating his jetpack. He took off in a long, low leap, skimming along the ground.

Until his leg caught on a protruding root, sending him sprawling.

Jefferson climbed to his feet, unconsciously trying to rub the part of his side where he had impacted. He couldn't, of course, not through his armor. He looked around, then continued forward, on foot this time, toward the school, coordinating with the rest of his team as he did so.

He arrived in no time, spotting the green and brown painted shells of the rest of his team's PAUs solidifying out of the forest.

"What's the plan?" Logan said, looking through his HUD at a pair of sentries on the roof.

"I think we take out the sentries, then move back into the forest." Jefferson said. "When they send out patrols to find out what happened, we intercept and destroy them."

"And then what?" Lucinda said. "What do we do after that?"

"Attack them, I suppose." Isabella said.

[x]

**Dallas, Texas**

Linaurulotla jumped her Kataphrakt into the air, flying over the volley fired by the American Soldiers and their primitive Kataphrakts. As they raised their aim to track her, she thrusted to the side and sank the long legs of her machine into the side of a skyscraper, then charged forward along the side of the wall, firing a short burst from her shoulder-mounted energy cannons toward the human machines.

The street was ruined and burned out, with shattered glass from the high-rise building covering the streets. A low haze of smoke covered everything, though it wasn't thick enough to truly obscure anything.

As one of the human Kataphrakts staggered backwards, struck by her shot, she moved forward until she was directly above the emery machines, then jumped away from the wall.

She landed among the enemy machines as they fired wildly, trying to hit her. A few rounds bounced off her shields, but none touched the skin of her machine. She activated her energy knife and slashed outwards, slicing into the skin of a Human Kataphrakt, melting its internal systems.

That machine crumpled, and she was already moving on to the next. She fired a burst from her shoulder cannons, destroying the head of the enemy machine, then slashed into it with her energy knife, breaching its core and causing it to explode.

Her shields flared as the Terran machine detonated, successfully deflecting the energy of the blast. As the smoke from the explosion cleared, rounds began to bounce off her taxed shield.

Linaurulotla frowned as her shield meter declined. She held out both of her knives and charged, cutting into first one, then the other enemy Kataphrakts. She was clear of the area before they exploded, a few pieces of shrapnel from the explosion bouncing off her shield.

A massive round exploded against her shield. She snapped her head around, spotting a battery of human artillery pieces that had level their guns at her and were firing directly at her.

As three more rounds struck her shield, it dropped, exposing the skin of her machine. A fifth round impacted, knocking her back. She opened fire on the human guns, destroying two of them before they could fire again.

The crews of the guns struggled to reload and back away as Linaurulotla charged, turning her guns on the remaining machines.

They died quickly.

As four more Kataphrakts stepped out of the spaces between the buildings, Linaurulotla spun around, raising her blades to engage. She charged.

The Terrans died well, fighting to the last man without retreating. As Linaurulotla lowered her blades, she considered what she had just done.

She had plunged headlong into the battle for Dallas, without regards for the lives she would take. She had just slaughtered at least thirty people, if the Vers Empire's intelligence on Terran war machines was correct, and had taken dozens that number over the course of the afternoon.

What had these men had to do with the Princess's assassination? They lived an ocean away, under completely different lords. Were they really invading all of the earth for the sins of a few people? Did they really know that the assassination of the Princess was part of some vast conspiracy by the Terran government? What would the Terrans stand to gain by doing that?

True, she had heard the official statements that the Old Humans were violent animals, prone to wanton acts of violence, but that just didn't ring true to her. She had read the works of Terra voraciously, both from before and after the split with Vers. She had seen their works. If they were violent animals, how could they produce such things?

Suddenly, Linaurulotla felt sick. What were they doing? What was going on?

A window appeared in the corner of her panoramic display monitor, showing the blonde-haired head of Count Rhlelotam.

"Pilot Linaurulotla? Are you well?" The Count said. "Your biometrics just spiked. I cannot afford to lose one of my pilots here."

"I'm fine, Milord." Linaurulotla lied.

After all, what other choice did she have?

[x]

**Werewolf Base, Two Weeks Later**

Jefferson thrusted to the side, raising his rocket launcher as he did so. As his jetpack sent him to one side, he fired a rocket at the Martian Kataphrakt.

The Martian machine raised one of its energy blades to deflect it, the round exploding as it entered the superheated plasma field of the blade.

However, the Martian didn't deflect the other three rockets launched by Christina, Logan, and Isabella.

As the three rounds impacted, the Martian spun around, slashing outwards towards Lucinda, who was jetting in to fire her rocket. She thrusted to the side at the last second, evading the blade, but she had to abort her attack run.

Jefferson landing, his Jetpack softening the impact. He dashed to put some crates between himself and the Martian machine, then took off at a run, arms moving on autopilot as he reloaded his rocket launcher.

The missile clicked home, and Jefferson sprang out from behind the crates, leveled his RPG, and fired. The rocket soared through the air, then impacted against the skin of the Kataphrakt, leaving a hole in the armor and some carbon scoring.

The machine spun to face him, then swung its blade downward. Jefferson jetted up and backwards, but the blade caught him anyway, and everything went black.

After a few seconds in darkness, the simulator began to open, and Jefferson climbed out. Christina was waiting for him outside the training capsule, dressed in the same awkwardly fitting training suit as he was.

"Those things are something else, huh." Christina said, glancing at a TV displaying the fight between the two surviving members of the group and the enemy Kataphrakt.

"Yeah." Jefferson said. Then he sighed and lowered his head. "I don't know how we're going to beat them. To be honest, I'm not sure that we can."

"That Japanese kid did." Christina said. "He's beaten three of them."

"With a platoon of Kataphrakts." Jefferson said. "And the support of an Aldnoah-powered Warship. We have some power armor and a few shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles. How are we supposed to match that?"

"I don't know." Christina said. "But we can't give up. If everyone gives up, then the Nazis win."

Jefferson grinned darkly. "I suppose you're right. As usual. But when you can't win, what else can you do?"

"You can fight." Christina said. "You can make the enemy suffer for every inch of your land that they take. You can be the thorn in their side, the rock in their shoe, the sand in their eye... it doesn't matter, as long as you fight."

"Fine." Jefferson said. "But how are five people going to take on a massive Empire. There are quite a lot of Versians, even without their Kataphrakts, you know?"

"We're not the only ones who feel this way." Christina said. "I've restored some communications infrastructure, and other people want to fight. But they need weapons, which we have, and they need someone to lead them."

"And you expect that to be me?" Jefferson said, face incredulous. "What can I do? Shoot up a barricade? Take down the odd Sky Carrier?"

"You can make people believe in you." Christina said. "Like I do."

"What?" Jefferson said.

"Look. Get changed and come with me to the situation room. There's something you have to see." 

[x]

"Look at this." Christina said. "The Vers are setting up a forward repair base a couple dozen miles from here. I've been talking with people, and they've been taking images of the base, its security, and so forth. One guy even got pressed into service there."

"Alright." Jefferson said, leaning forward against the console in the command center. "What do we have on the base?"

They were standing in the command center of the Werewolf base, a room near the bottom of the complex. The painted concrete walls of the room were lined with computer monitors showing the status of the United States, the surrounding area, and enemy movement, though many of the screens were currently blank. Chairs lined a long table at the center of the room, and a low buzzing sound filled the air.

"I've started to put together a virtual image of the repair center." Christina said, "And security is surprisingly light. Other than the Kataphrakt there, obviously. I'm not sure what good this does, but..."

"Even if we get in, I don't think we can destroy the Kataphrakt." Jefferson said.

"That's not what I wanted to hear." Christina said.

"But I think we might be able to steal it."


	3. Chapter 3

**The Italics bit in the middle is the Paratrooper's prayer, one of the most badass things to ever come out of France. It really seemed to fit the scene.**

**Remember to review. Terra needs you!  
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**[x]**

**Smalltown, Texas, three days later.**

Logan stopped the truck in the alley and walked out. A man dressed in dirty work clothes stepped out from behind a dumpster.

"Are we being watched?" Logan asked, looking around. Christina had assured him that they were not, but he if this man knew something, he wanted to know.

The alley was dark, with brick walls rising on both sides and a dumpster obscuring the view of the street. It seemed like a great place for to get mugged, in all honesty.

"No." The man said. "I made sure I came here alone, just like you asked."

"Good." Logan said, opening the passenger's side rear door on the truck. "I'd introduce myself, but under the circumstances, I think it would be best if I didn't."

Inside, stacked up on the seats, were blocks of white plastic explosive. A small bag of detonators sat on top of the

"Is that the stuff?" The man asked, looking at the explosives.

"Yeah." Logan said, nodding. "You know the drill, but we have a detailed description of where you're going to need to put the bombs. Use two fist-sized blobs of the stuff mushed together, with one detonator. Obviously, it has to be somewhere out of sight, and for God's sake, where gloves when setting it up."

"I got it." The man said. "I know how these things work."

Logan nodded as the man advanced and began loading the blocks of C4 into his backpack. "Now, I should probably get out of here before something stupid happens."

"Agreed." The man said, zipping up his backpack. "For all our sakes, I hope this works."

[x]

The stealth drone, which was a fancy name for a large remote-control plane coated in anti-radar material, controlled on a frequency-hopping super-encrypted channel, and loaded with some of the best (affordable) electronics warfare gear available, glided over the Vers Forward Repair Base.

It was a dark, moonless night, and an overcast sky hid the stars and the Satellite Belt from view. Below, the only thing moving in the Vers base were the sweeping searchlights and the slow movement of the guards on patrol.

In short, it was a perfect night for Partisans.

The base itself was a collection of ugly, clearly pre-fabricated, block like buildings, nestled in a large hollow between two hills on the outskirts of Smalltown. A large central building housed the Kataphrakts undergoing repair and the Sky Carriers that brought them in, with a long cleared area leading away from the doors of the repair building toward the double-layered fence surrounding the compound. Several other, smaller, buildings radiating out from the main building in all other directions provided technical support, machine shops, housing for Vers personnel, and Air Traffic Control for the invaders in the area.

Miles away, Lucinda and Christina sat in a nondescript black truck, both with laptops out, controlling the drone and monitoring the feed from its surveillance systems.

"I can't believe that we can fly something this close to one of their major Air Traffic Control facilities without them detecting it." Christina said. "You'd think that big radar antenna would find us."

"It would, if it were turned on." Lucinda said, looking up from her laptop. "They turn it off at night, when they're not conducting flight operations."

"Why?" Christina asked. "That sounds... stupid."

"You have to keep the Vers mindset in... mind when considering their actions." Lucinda explained. "They're a very resource-poor people; so they conserve energy not provided by their Aldnoah drives whenever they can. And that massive omnidirectional search radar is an absolute pig. They keep a thick border of very strong air defenses at the edge of occupied territory, but don't use a lot of their radar inside their captured territory."

"Huh." Christina said. "Well, whatever it is, they're leaking energy like crazy. I'm working on accessing several of their networks down there right now."

"Awesome." Lucinda said, banking the plane to keep it over the Vers base. "Once we have want we need, I'll call the bird back and we can get back to base."

[x]

"Alright." Jefferson said to the assembled group of civilians. "This is going to be dangerous, and will probably end with all of you dead. This is your last chance to back out."

He was sitting in the living room of a suburban home, wearing a ski mask over his face. Five men and three women sat on a variety of couches and chairs opposite him, their faces covered by a mixture of clothing articles.

"I'm not going to back down." One man said. "I can't stomach the ideas of these Vers motherfuckers doing whatever they want. They blew up the Moon, and now they want to take our homes? I won't stand for it."

"Very well." Jefferson said. "Then this is what you have to do."

Isabella opened a wooden chest sitting on the floor, revealing a pair of RPG-36s resting in foam. The polished black plastic and metal of the weapons sparkled in the low light of the room.

"I'm assigning you three weapons per target." Jefferson said. "Everything you've been assigned to hit should be delicate enough for only one weapon to bring it down, but do everything you can not to miss. Everything is riding on your successful execution of this operation."

It wasn't actually. Jefferson had worked a fair degree of redundancy into the plan, and the failure of this cell _probably_ wouldn't automatically prevent the successful execution of the mission. However, it certainly wouldn't help, and thinking they were mission-critical would probably make the novice partisans less likely to get cold feet.

"We won't miss." A man assured him. "Those arrays are as good as gone."

"The second we give the signal." Isabella said. "They need to go down right when we need them to, or the whole plan is a bust."

"Alright." The man said. "I'll get these things down to the basement, and then we'll be ready to go."

[x]

**Werewolf Base and Environs**

_I'm asking You God, to give me what You have left._

Jefferson surveyed the holographic map of the Vers base in the situation room, hand on his chin. Christina sat at a computer near him, tapping away at some malware program designed to give the group brief control over a few of the systems of the Vers base. Code scrolled across the screen as she made modifications, while Jefferson re-ordered a set of automated commands that were to be sent to a group of partisans.

_Give me those things which others never ask of You._

Lucinda sat behind the controls of the Electronics Warfare stealth drone, guiding it as it flew high in the Texas night sky. She smiled as a map of Vers radar installations appeared on her screen.

_I don't ask You for rest, or tranquility._

_Not that of the spirit, the body, or the mind._

A man carrying a heavy sealed case down the grey hallway of a prefabricated Vers building put looked around furtively, then put down his case and removed a ring of keys from the pocket of his dusty genes. He inserted the key into the lock of a case covered in glowing LEDs on the wall, unlocked it, and stuck dropped a small hemispherical device the size of a thumbnail on the inside of the door, then closed and locked the case. He smiled and kept walking.

_I don't ask You for wealth, or success, or even health_

Logan jumped behind a brick wall, the blocky nature of the dust rising as the boots of his Personal Armor United impacted betraying the virtual nature of his environment. He ducked as a stream of bullets shot overhead, then stood up as the fire slackened and raised a heavy machinegun. He fired a long burst, sweeping the weapon horizontally, and several simulated Vers soldiers dissolved into pixels.

_All those things are asked of You so much Lord,_

_That you can't have any left to give._

In the infirmary of the Werewolf Base, Isabella opened a cabinet and pulled out a brown box. She drew a knife and slit the tape, then opened the box and began removing bottles of antiseptic.

_Give me instead Lord what You have left._

Jefferson scanned through combat reports on a computer screen, pages bearing both the dove of the UEF and the circle and stars of the Vers empire. He flicked to a report, scanned it, and then flipped to the next one. Kapperman, who was looking over his shoulder, muttered something, and Jefferson responded. He scrawled down a note on a piece of paper on the desk in front of him, then pulled up a calendar and pointed at a date.

_Give me what others don't want._

Christina looked at a graphical representation of the Vers repair bases computer systems, a list of passwords and encryption keys known to her computing system scrolling beside the image. She smiled as a box on the screen turned from green to yellow.

_I want uncertainty and doubt._

Lucinda tapped out a message to the UEF North American Headquarters, Kapperman's US Military ID open on the table next to her.

_I want torment and battle._

On a map of the United States in the Command Center, the red shading representing the Vers occupied territory spreading out from black dots in New Orleans, Vancouver, and Juneau and stretching deep into the U.S., Canada, and Mexico continued to creep forward.

_And I ask that You give them to me now and forever Lord,_

_So I can be sure to always have them,_

Isabella, wearing a large apron and safety goggles, held up a hose applicator of camouflage foam and pointed it at a Kataphrakt Transport Truck in the base's garage.

_Because I won't always have the strength to ask again._

Kapperman spun a three-dimensional representation of a Vers Sky Carrier on a projector in the base's machine shop, then looked at a whirring rapid prototyping machine and grinned as he picked up a drill.

_But give me also the courage, the energy,_

Lucinda walked into a dry cleaners, the bell ringing as she entered, the setting sun shining through the glass walls of the storefront. She walked up to the clerk and whispered something. He nodded and walked into the back of the shop. A second later, he returned, carrying a Vers uniform in plastic wrap on a hanger.

_And the spirit to face them._

Jefferson pulled up a map showing known Vers presence in the southern United States and traced a route across Eastern Texas on it.

_I ask You these things Lord,_

Logan walked down an isle in the base armory in his Personal Armor Unit, grabbing weapons off the racks.

_Because I can't ask them of myself._

The door of the Werewolf Base garage began to open, letting in the rays of the rising sun.

Jefferson, dressed in the uniform of a Vers pilot, looked up at the sunrise.

"Operation, start."

[x]

Emily Smith looked up at the sky over her suburban neighborhood. She was hungry, but that was no longer unusual. The seven-year-old girl had grown used to getting less than she'd like to eat ever since the Vers Kataphrakt had demolished her house, killing her parents. She and her older sister were saying at some friend's house for now, but-

Suddenly, three red lights appeared in the sky to the west. Emily tugged her sister's sleeve and pointed at them.

"Flares...?" Her sister muttered. "Haven't seen those since Basic Signaling in school. Three red. IN UEF standard code, that's... Commencing attack?!"

Emily's sister grabbed her arm and began to run in the opposite direction, dragging her little sister with her.

[x]

Logan looked through the scope of his sniper rifle, the crosshairs hovering over the head of the Vers soldier on sentry duty, who was leaning against the outer layer of the fence.

He was standing in an autumnal forest, wearing a Personal Armor Unit which had been repainted to match the leaves, which were just starting to change. His 20mm sniper rifle was balanced on a fallen log, pointing toward the Vers base.

"We're green to go." Christina whispered.

He pulled the trigger. The Vers soldier's head vanished.

As he stood up, the servos in his armor whining, he reached down to his waist and removed a flare pistol. He pointed it up in the air and fired three times. He grabbed a rocket launcher off the ground and pointed it at a random building of the Vers base.

As alarm klaxons began to wail, he fired.

The he turned and ran, not looking as the RPG round punched through a window, impacted an inner wall, and exploded. It was time for war.

[x]

Christina sat in the cab of the truck, her cyber warfare gear covering the wall behind her, the dashboard in front of her, and the seat to her left. She had her laptop out, and was listening to the feeds from all the various team members.

She pressed the enter key on her keyboard. On her monitor, which displayed a rat's nest of boxes and lines that somehow represented the Vers base, things began to flash.

[x]

**Twenty Minutes Earlier**

Jefferson held up a Vers day pass as he walked toward the gate leading to the Vers base, turning to face the guard. The gate was no more than a heavily reinforced section of the double fence surrounding the repair base with a dirt path leading into the compound. There wasn't even a shack for the guards.

"You have fun?" The guard said, turning to face him.

"Yeah." Jefferson said. "It's pretty different out here."

"You know it." The guard said. "Don't let the morale officer hear this, but Terran girls are great. Especially starving ones."

Jefferson's stomach turned. "They sure are."

The man would get his soon enough.

Jefferson stepped forward and swiped a white card at the scanner on the side of the gate.

"Well, everything seems to check out." The guard said. "Go on in."

Jefferson walked through the outer gate, a grin forming on his face. He was dressed in the stolen Vers soldier's uniform, and Christina had hacked him up the necessary passes and papers to get into the base. He didn't want to jinx the operation, but things were going well so far.

Instead of heading straight to the central hanger, he detoured to one of the machine shops, holding the door open for an officer who was exiting. He entered, following the memorized schematics stolen from the Vers network.

Making his way to the bathroom, Jefferson checked his timepiece. He had seventeen minutes to accomplish his objectives.

Walking into the men's restroom, Jefferson selected the stall second furthest from the door and locked himself in. He reached into his pockets and removed the epaulets of a Vers officer and pilot and began pinning them onto his shoulders.

The second his promotion from Corporal to Captain was done, he stepped out of the stall, washed his hands, and made his way out of the bathroom.

He exited the machine shop and made his way towards the central hanger. _The key to infiltration is to act like you belong_. He thought as he walked, trying to calm his nerves. _They have no reason to suspect me. _

He swiped his card at the door to the hanger and walked in, angling towards the central chamber. He was so lost in thought that he almost bumped into a girl walking around the corner.

"Excuse me, ma'am." He said, glancing down at her uniform. "I- Oh. Forgive me, Ma'am." He said, bowing.

This girl, who looked no older than him, was a Versian Kataphrakt pilot. What monster lurked behind her bright green hair and eyes, her charming face and delicate features? How many of his kin and countrymen had this beast in the form of a woman slain to sate her bloodlust?

"Oh, I'm sorry." She said, laughing. "It's okay. You can stop bowing."

"Yes, ma'am." He said, straightening his back, keeping his expression neutral. He could whip out his sidearm and kill her now, but that would compromise the mission.

"Have a nice day." She said, and kept walking forward.

Jefferson continued, until he found the pilot's ready room. He pressed a button on his jacket, and miles away, Christina implemented a loop of the room's feed. He swiped his pass card on the reader, opened the door and walked in.

The room looked like any other waiting room in the world, with tacky wallpaper and carpet, and a large duty roster on one wall. A short man wearing the same pilot's uniform as Jefferson sat on a couch, reading a magazine. He stood up as Jefferson entered.

"I was not informed that I would be relieved for another few hours." The pilot said.

"Really?" Jefferson said, walking past him, towards the coffee machine, reaching into his pockets.

"Yes." The pilot said, as Jefferson clasped his hands together. "I-"

"You're working too hard." Jefferson said, wiping his hands over the Vers pilot's neck, a string of piano wire taut between them. "Take a breather."

The pilot's eyes widened as Jefferson began to choke him. His hands shot up to his throat and grasped at the garrote, but Jefferson had pulled it tight too quickly.

Jefferson gasped heavily as the man expired between his arms. Killing with guns from hundreds of yards away was one thing, but this was completely different. It was disgusting, barbaric, and strangely invigorating.

This man deserved to die for his role in invading his homeland. He was just an agent of justice. That was what Jefferson told himself as the man went slack. Jefferson kept the garrote tight for a few more seconds, then released it.

As he dragged the body over to cabinets under the counter with the coffee machine, Jefferson regained his composure._ This had to be done_. He thought, opening the cabinet and stuffing the man inside.

He rearranged a few boxes to conceal the body, then closed it and walked over to where the pilot had been sitting. The couch was still warm.

Jefferson picked up the magazine walked over to the other side of the room.

Then he waited.

[x]

"Time for some false orders." Christina whispered, cracking her knuckles. The Vers base was in chaos, and Logan was raining fired down on the base, killing people as they ran between buildings and preventing the base's garrison of soldiers, at least two companies in total, from taking any action.

[x]

Linaurulotla froze as the unmistakable sound of an explosion echoed into the building over the wailing of the alarms. She turned around and began running back the way she came, toward the Kataphrakt hanger. She pulled out her communicator as she did so.

She had one message, text-only, from the Count, at the highest level of priority.

_Evacuate immediately by air._ It read. _You're Kataphrakt cannot fall into enemy hands._

That was true. Her machine was not yet battle-ready, having blown out a power junction in its last battle. It was a simple, if time consuming, thing to fix, but it would prevent her from projecting her shield or using her guns until it was repaired.

She burst into the hanger, which looked much more typically 'Vers' than the rest of the prefabricated repair base. Technicians were running around like headless chickens as she entered. Her machine, the Avernus, sat in a pool of glowing liquid, surrounded by robotic arms and shelves of spare parts.

"Get my Kataphrakt ready to fly!" She command, pointing at the senior technician.

"But its not-" He paused. "Yes, milady."

Linaurulotla jumped into the raft in the pool of liquid, the motor whirring briefly as it sent her zooming across the pool toward the open cockpit of her machine.

The head of the Avernus fell into place as she slid into the cockpit, the panoramic monitors lighting up around her. She felt a brief jerk as the robotic arms lifted her machine into the air and began moving it toward the waiting Sky Carrier.

[x]

Jefferson dashed out of the ready room towards the boarding strut for the ready Sky Carrier. He removed a flash drive from his pocket as he opened the unlocked door and dashed onto the catwalk.

The Vers Kataphrakt was being lowered into position on the strut as he entered the cockpit, liquid still dripping off its obsidian skin.

As Jefferson started up the Sky Carrier, he inserted the flash drive into a slot below the main control yoke on the dashboard. As the controls and the monitor lit up, he looked at the display. It showed a simplistic image of a sky carrier from the front, with a cartoonish Kataphrakt standing on the lower extension strut. It measured all connections as good.

A red and black OVERRIDE button appeared over the display, clashing with the subtle Vers decor. Jefferson tapped the button.

"Are we ready to fly?" The Vers Kataphrakt pilot from earlier said over the intercom.

"We're good to go." Jefferson responded. "Starting main engine now."

Jefferson flicked a series of switches, and the engines of the Sky Carrier began to purr. He grasped the main controls and took a deep breath. This was the hard part. He had a bit of piloting experience from one of his Mandatory Military Electives, and he had spent a lot of time on a flight simulator in preparation for this mission.

None of which made up for the fact that he had never actually flown a plane before.

He eased the throttle forward as the doors of the hanger slid open. As the plane began to advance, ne increased the engine power.

The second the aircraft was clear of the hanger, he jerked the throttle forward and pulled the nose of the aircraft up. As the plane jolted into the air, leveled the nose out.

"Have you ever done this before?" The Vers pilot demanded.

"Kinda busy here, ma'am." Jefferson responded, as the aircraft began to gain altitude.

[x]

Logan watched as the Sky Carrier took off from the central hanger and zoomed overhead, partially obscured by the branches of the intervening trees.

"Execute Stage Two." He said, as he turned and began running back the way he came.

"Understood." Christina said. "Are you in position?"

"Almost-" Logan said, raising a rocket launcher. "Shit!"

A fire team of Vers soldiers was running into the woods, obviously searching for him. As one of them shouted and raised his rifle, Logan grabbed his machine gun and sprayed it at the Martians one-handed, servos whining in protest.

As two of the Vers soldiers went down and the rest dove for cover, Logan stepped behind a tree, eyes scanning for the remaining enemies as he returned his rocket launcher to his back and reloaded.

One Vers soldier sprang up on his flank, shooting him twice before he had the chance to react. The man looked at the armored daemon before him, shock on his face, as Logan charged him and punched him in the face.

His head sort of broke as Logan's armored fist connected.

Logan spun around, spotting another Vers soldier who was attempting the same thing froze in shock. Logan shot him twice in the center of body mass, then continued running forward, tossing a pair of grenades behind him.

Seconds later, he came upon the Vers base, which looked quite different from how it had been when he had first approached. Smoke rose from several places where RPG rounds had impacted, and the occasional burst of automatic gunfire rang out from the automated weapons Logan had emplaced around the facility.

Logan raised his RPG and leveled it at the Vers base's main radar antenna. He pulled the trigger, sending the round flying into the delicate array, smashing the search radar.

That done, Logan sang back into the woods, blood still dripping from his fist.

[x]

Johnson level his RPG at the Vers radar array. Two men guarded it, but they hadn't seen him yet, and it was too late. He pulled the trigger.

At the same time, two of his companions fired their RPGs. The rockets streaked towards the radar array. The two fired by his friends missed but his struck the mark, exploding against the central antenna of the Vers radar.

As the radar toppled, Johnson pulled out a pistol and started shooting at Vers soldiers. One of them fell to his knees, and the other raised his rifle and started returning fire.

Johnson never saw the bullet that killed him.

[x]

"Where are we going?" The Vers pilot asked over the intercom as Jefferson struggled to keep the aircraft flying in a straight line.

"About that..." Jefferson said. "See, here's the thing. I'm not a soldier of Vers, and neither are you."

"What do you mean?"

"See, you're a prisoner now." Jefferson said. "I've captured you."

"What are you talking about?" The pilot demanded.

"Just what I said." Jefferson explained. "You can't escape, by the way. I've locked you out of your controls."

She said nothing for a moment. "How?" She whispered.

"It was simple." Jefferson said. "But I can't tell you how."

Jefferson brought the aircraft in low and slow, switching partly to hover mode. In small valley parallel to the path of the aircraft, a UFE Kataphrakt transport truck waited, engine idling.

"I'd love to hang around and chat." Jefferson said, "But I've got to jet."

He pressed a button labeled 'Cockpit open', and a second one labeled 'Cargo Drop'.

Then he pulled up sharply and reached between his legs. As he leveled his plane out, Jefferson pulled the ejection handle, pressing himself into the seat as he did so.

The panoramic monitor faded to static for a moment, then blew off, the armored panels covering it popped off and flew away in the wind, and then Jefferson's seat shot out of the aircraft and flew upwards.

The wind hit Jefferson like a smack in the face, and the acceleration pressed down on him. He could actually feel his consciousness slipping away from him as his heart strained to pump his blood against the obscene pressures he was being subjected to. It occurred to him that the Vers should really invest in pilot suits, and not the kind you'd wear to a formal dinner.

He wasn't sure how long it lasted, but it felt like an eternity.

Then it stopped. Jefferson opened his eyes, not realizing that he had closed them, and looked around.

Vertigo overcame him. He was hanging in the air hundreds, possibly thousands of feet up in the air, feeling weightless as the inertia of his ascent slowly lost its battle with gravity.

Then he was falling, straining at the restraints holding him to his seat. A pilot parachute pooped out of the back of his chair, followed by a larger parachute, which quickly unfurled into a square canopy over his head.

He used his guide wires to angle himself toward the waiting truck as he descended, feeling like a shooting gallery target. He would have liked to spill air from his chute to speed his descent, but he didn't dare attempt it.

As the truck grew larger beneath him, he spotted a figure running toward where he was going to land. Isabella.

He landed, and then the events of the day overcame him, and he fainted.

[x]

Linaurulotla clung to the control yokes of her aircraft as it was dumped of the Sky Carrier, entry hatch opening as it fell. The panoramic monitors had gone grey, and most of her sensors were dead. The only information she had as to what was going on was what she could feel.

Then her machine impacted. Its inertial stabilizers kicked in, reducing the impact, but it still hurt. She recovered from the impact slowly. It took her a moment to realize that she was lying, or perhaps hanging, on her side, one of her restraints digging into her side.

She spotted motion at the cockpit hatch, a figure climbing into the cockpit. Desperately, she reached to her waist for her sidearm, only to remember that she hadn't carried it today. She had been in a safe zone. Why would she have needed to?

Then a blue light appeared in the figure's hand. The figure touched Linaurulotla's shoulder, and she felt a strange sensation run through her, like she was hot and cold at the same time, with needles running through her veins. She strained against her restraints for a moment, then fell slack, barely aware as the figure unstrapped her and slowly began dragging her out of the cockpit.

She felt a sensation of cold on her wrists as the Terrans clicked a pair of handcuffs around her wrists. She wasn't sure what was going on for a little while after that. Eventually, she felt herself be dumped into a seat, and heard several further clicks.

After a few minutes further, Linaurulotla groaned, then realized something was wrong. Perhaps it was the strip of Terran Duct Tape over her mouth. She looked around, surveying her surroundings.

Her hands were cuffed together, and as she shifted her feet, she found that her feet were cuffed together as well. Her handcuffs, in turn, were cuffed to a solid-looking metal handle on the wall of the room, and her... legcuffs were attached to what looked like the handle of a cabinet beneath her. Her hands seemed to be wrapped in more duct tape, holding her fingers together.

She was sitting on a bed, with a thin mattress and blankets. The space was fairly small, and there was another girl, in it, a slight blonde dressed in a Terran military uniform and holding a Taser. The girl pressed the button of the Taser absently, watching as blue electricity arced between the prongs. Then she looked back at Linaurulotla.

"Ah, you're awake." The girl said. "I'm tempted to taze you again, but the boss said no unnecessary damage."

Linaurulotla's eyes widened.

"I won't don't worry." The girl said. "It probably wouldn't be good for you. In any case, I'm Isabella. I'm not partially pleased to meet you, but I'd still shake your hand, if we had any way to be sure that your demonic hellcraft of whatever it is that powers your robot couldn't use that to get free. As you can see, we've taken precautions."

Linaurulotla shook her head. Perhaps a member of the Royal Family could do... something in this situation, but all she could do was awaken Aldnoah Drives.

"In any case, you bitch, your killing days are over. We have your Kataphrakt and-"

With a rumble, the engine of the truck started and Linaurulotla felt the vehicle begin to move.

"-We're on our way back to our base now. Your people's search grids are down, so there is almost zero chance you be found, and even if we were to encounter enemies, I'd put you down before they could recover you. I hope you like concrete and MREs, because that's all that's in your near future."

Linaurulotla looked away from her captor. How could it have come to this?


	4. Chapter 4

"Sir!" One of the Vers bridge officers said, looking up from his station on the bridge of the Landing Castle. "One of our Forward Repair Stations just dropped off the grid!"

"What do you mean?" Rhlelotam said. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, milord." The bridge officer said. "We've lost all communications."

"Restore them at once!' Rhlelotam declared, waving his hand.

"Some of the sensors are reporting physical damage!" Another officer said.

Rhlelotam grit his teeth, his handsome, square-jawed face contorting in anger. Several minutes passed as the bridge officers worked frantically to figure out what was going on.

"Sir!" The first bridge officer said again. "The radar arrays are reporting a radar signature leaving the repair base at high speed and increasing altitude! It's running our IFF. It's one of our Sky Carriers!"

"What is its heading?"

"South by southwest." The technician said. "I-"

"Hail it!" Rhlelotam said.

"It's not responding!" The communications officer said.

The radar display suddenly went to static for a moment, and then contacts started to appear all over it. The bridge officer squinted as he looked at it, then grimaced as he made out the rather obscene gesture they formed. He pressed a button and the contacts disappeared and the display turned to normal, sans the feeds from several major search radars.

"Where is that Sky Carrier?" Rhlelotam demanded, eyes boring a hole in the back of the officer's head.

"I don't know!" The man said. "It must be in the dead zone-"

He paused. "Requiring contact. Now it's moving south-east and accelerating, flying fairly low. It's gone supersonic."

"Scramble aircraft for intercept." Rhlelotam ordered.

"Scrambling." Another officer said. "ETA... fifteen minutes to takeoff."

Rhlelotam growled. "Cut the pre-flight checks. We can't let this farce go on."

"Very well, sir." The flight officer said. "Five minutes to takeoff."

"Where can we intercept them?"

"Somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico." The fight officer said. "It the target maintains its present course. Ready a response force to the repair site, and mobilize oceanic search teams."

[x]

Jefferson awakened just as the door of the motor pool slid shut and the lights of the hanger flickered on.

"And so, our fearless leader returns to us." Christina said, shutting down the engine of the tuck.

"How did the operation go?" Jefferson asked, looking around.

"Flawlessly." Christina said. "They shot down the Sky Carrier out over the Gulf, and appear to be focusing their search there. Logan got back from the base, and most none of our teams were captured. And we have the Kataphrakt and the pilot.

"Thank God." Jefferson said. "I can't believe that worked. Let's get the pilot to a cell, and get me a flash line to U.S. High command and UEF headquarters. There's a war to win."

[x]

Jefferson sat down in the command room of the base on the Commanders computer, flashed Kapperman's credentials across the scanner, opened a FLASH-Z text communication from, and began to type.

_To those it may concern,_

_I am writing on behalf of the Werewolf base Aleph-XVII-B. We are not the soldiers intended to make use of this facility, but rather a group of citizens in the company of a downed pilot who have taken it upon ourselves to do our part to win this war._

_Pleasantries aside, you may know that a Vers Forward Repair Base has come under attack recently. What you may not know is that my group has successfully captured a Vers Kataphrakt and its pilot. Visual evidence is attached. We will commence examination of this resource and interrogation of the captured pilot, and relay further information._

_Respectfully,_

_A Concerned Citizen._

[x]

Lieutenant Joe Harris nearly spilled his coffee as the FLASH-Z priority message appeared on his screen.

[x]

Linaurulotla sat in a cell in the... wherever the Terrans had taken her. She sat behind a desk, with her hands cuffed and attached to a small anchor on the top of the table. Her legs were cuffed as well. She was stiff, tired, sore from being tazed and she had to go to the bathroom.

The cell was bare concrete, with a cheap plastic desk and a heavy steel door. A lamp rested in each of the top corners of the cell, each one behind a cage.

She wasn't sure how long she had been here, but she was getting bored, fast. She never liked going without something to do, and there was nothing to do in this cell. Cuffed down as she was, she couldn't even pace.

Then the door opened. A tall young man walked in. He pulled out the chair opposite of Linaurulotla and sat down. He looked oddly familiar.

"Good people died today because of you." He said. "For the sin of being born Terran, that their ancestors didn't move to Mars fifty-odd years ago."

Linaurulotla said nothing. She simply stared at her captor. Where had she seen him before?

"Of course, you know all about death." He continued. "You're a murder, little miss Martian. How many people have you killed in the past month?"

"I don't know." Linaurulotla whispered. "Thousands, probably."

"Good God." The man said. "You even have the gall to act sorry, like you didn't enjoy every minute of it, of purging the inferior Terrans."

Linaurulotla glanced away. She hadn't enjoyed any of it. But how did she tell him that?

The man shook his head. "Let's get down to business. We need a list of the other Kataphrakts in the Castles that touched down here, their capabilities, and their weaknesses. Everything that you know."

Linaurulotla smiled grimly. "Why would I tell a filthy Terran that? That's what you think I believe, isn't it?"

"Why wouldn't you?" The man said. "You're a Kataphrakt pilot of Vers."

"We're not all like that, you know." She said suddenly. "I'm not like that! I signed up to pilot because the Count said we needed everyone with a high Aldnoah affinity that we could get, but the war was nothing like I thought it would be?"

"And what did you expect it to be?" He said. "How would it be anything other than slaughtering masses of people with hopelessly inferior weapons and capabilities."

"I don't know." Linaurulotla said, looking down. Her eyes felt wet. "I thought it would be different somehow. I thought it would be like something from one of my stories."

The man sighed. Linaurulotla felt ashamed. She had let herself be tricked and captured by the Terrans, and now she was breaking down and crying in front of one of them.

"Will you help us?" He asked.

[x]

"Will you help us?" Jefferson asked, looking at the Vers pilot crying in front of him.

She wasn't what he had expected. He had been expecting the pilot to be a brutal murderer, proud and stoic under interrogation. He had barely done anything, and she was already crying. He felt a bit awkward, to be completely honest. He didn't like making a girl cry, and the longer he sat in this cell, the more it occurred to him that that was exactly what she was. Unless she was acting, but that seemed unlikely to him for some reason.

Perhaps a more gentle approach was required.

"Look." Jefferson said, trying to be gentler. "Tell me your name, at the very least."

"Linaurulotla." The Green-haired girl said. "It's Linaurulotla."

"Alright, Linaurulotla, do you mind if I call you Lin?"

She shook her head.

"Okay, look, Lin. A lot of people have died because of this invasion, a lot of good and innocent people." Jefferson said. "If you want to make that right, if you want to start to make amends for what you've done, you can start by telling me about your Count's Kataphrakts."

"Tell me about Earth." Lin said. "Tell me your story, and I'll tell you what you want to know."

Jefferson paused for a moment. Revealing more about himself could be bad, but this girl was in a faraday cage dozens of yards underground, and Christina had administered a series of Electromagnetic Pulses to fuse any signaling devices she had on her person.

"Very well." Jefferson said. "I was born in a small town in a place called Virginia, more than fifteen hundred miles from here."

"What happened?" Lin asked.

"The Heaven's Fall." Jefferson said. "My whole family got wiped out, just like that."

"Oh."

"Well, I don't really remember much of it." Jefferson said. "I just have this clear image in my head of the moon breaking up... And then nothing."

"How did you end up here?" Linaurulotla said, looking up.

"I don't really know." Jefferson said. "But I drifted from foster home to foster home with Christina until I turned eighteen, when I got enough of an inheritance to buy a house. I was never the greatest in school, always was something of an underachiever, so I was going to a local college, living off my inheritance and Refugee Support. Not really sure what I wanted to do with myself, at least until the invasion started."

"So why are you fighting?" Lin asked.

"Excuse me?" Jefferson asked. "You people invaded my country and killed millions of my people. Why wouldn't I be fighting?"

"I see." Linaurulotla said.

"So, about those Kataphrakts?"

"Well." Lin began. "The first is Gordii. Its pilot is Alaish, an absolute psychopath, and..."

[x]

**Area 88, West Texas**

"Look at this!" Doctor Mark Franklin said, pointing at the message. "Someone actually did it! They captured a Martian Kataphrakt intact, with the pilot still alive!"

"It's an impressive job, I'll give them that." Green Beret Sergeant Jeff Williams said. "I'd love to know how they did it."

"Well, that doesn't matter!" Dr. Franklin replied. "We have to get to their base and study it."

"Out of the question." Dr. Alicia said. "Werewolf Aleph-XVII-B is two hundred miles behind enemy lines. How do you expect we'd get there?"

The three stood in a communications room of Area 88, an underground Air Force research facility located a few miles outside the town of Redacted, Texas. The interior of the base looked much like the inside of every other UFE facility, with this room having the added advantage of several large computer monitors on the walls and workstations in rows through the room.

"Well, an air drop might work." Dr. Franklin said. "If we worked it so this group, whoever they are, is ready to pick us up when we land, it could work."

Dr. Franklin was a middle-aged man with light brown hair, large glasses, and an impressive scar running down the side of his face. He wore the lab coat that was had practically become the uniform of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency since the possibility of a resumed war with Mars became real.

"Out of the question." Sargent Williams said. "I've been appointed your protector by High Command, and I can't just let you go gallivanting off to occupied territory."

Sargent Williams was a tall, muscular black man in a camouflage-pattern muscle shirt, with a pistol in a holster on his hip and a perpetual scowl on his face.

"But this could turn the tide of the war!" Dr. Franklin protested. "Learning more about how these Vers Kataphrakts work could be the opening we need to beat them."

"It still seems like a terrible idea." Dr. Alicia said. "What if we're captured?"

Dr. Alicia, a DARPA scientist like Franklin, wore the same lab coat. She had blonde hair she kept permanently tied up in a laboratory bun, and Dr. Franklin was of the opinion that she looked very cute when she was growing. Like right now.

"Our work on the Oberon is finished." Dr. Franklin said, "And it's in the final stages of Fabrication. We aren't needed there anymore. We need to find some new way to contribute to the war effort, and this seems like the best option available."

"You're dead set on this?" Sergeant Williams said.

"Wasn't it one of you military types who said that he who hesitates is lost?" Dr. Franklin said.

"No." Dr. Alicia said. "Actually, it was-"

"That's not important." Dr. Franklin said. "What matters is this; e are certainly lost if we do nothing."

"You're really going to force me on this?" Sergeant Williams asked.

"Yes." Dr. Franklin said. "Audacity and all that."

Sargent Williams sighed. "I'll start drawing up a mission plan."

[x]

Commander O'Kane sat in the Big Chair of the _Odysseus_, held in position by his seat restraints as his ship floated on inertial cruise toward the Vers Convoy. They had confirmed the presence of the enemy ships some twenty hours ago, using the unfoldable detector nets.

Once they had found the convoy, they had launched themselves into an intercept course, then gone to silent running.

Now, it looked like the weeks spent maneuvering into attack position were about to pay off.

He opened a general broadcast channel to the crew.

"Gentlemen, I'll keep this quick, as we're all got a date with destiny coming up in a few minutes. But we are about to open a whole new chapter in the book of war; war between ships in interplanetary space." He sighed. "This is a great accomplishment for mankind, however much I wish it were not necessary."

Another pause. "But it is, and if we are to survive, we must all do our parts. You know your jobs, so do them. I'll see you on the other side."

He closed the channel.

"Here we go." Executive Officer Bismarck said, looking at her plotter display.

There were nine Vers transport vessels in the convoy, moving in a rough line.

"We're coming into torpedo range now!" Von Hayek said. "What are your orders, Captain?"

"Prepare tubes one through nine for firing." O'Kane said grimly. "Thermonuclear warheads."

"Yes, Captain." Von Hayek said. "Tubes one through nine ready to fire."

"Very well, then." Commander O'Kane said. "Shall we dance? Fire tubes one through three on Hotel One. Fire four through six on Hotel Five. Fire tubes seven through nine on Hotel Nine."

"Aye, Captain." Von Hayek said, pressing a key on his console.

A moment later, the ship began to rock as the massive railguns that were her torpedo tubes fired the nuclear-tipped torpedoes in salvos of three. Then it passed, and everything was silent.

Out in space, the torpedoes, already hurtling through space at a considerable velocity, activated their counter-mass enhanced plasma drives. Massive torrents of solar fire appeared behind each weapon as they began to accelerate at a breakneck pace, toward the Martian transport vessels.

"Putting plot on main display." A bridge crewman said.

The missiles appeared as three tracks of green the holographic display, diverging as they advanced towards their targets, angry red welts scattered across space on the tactical plot.

The Vers vessels spotted the torpedoes and began to accelerate, trying to put on enough velocity to escape the incoming weapons, which approached at a right angle to their course. However, the transports were equipped with sluggish drives intended for maximum efficiency on interplanetary voyages, not for evading missiles.

As the missiles closed, the Vers vessels began firing their hull armament at the incoming missiles, sending a hail of projectiles into space at the inbound torpedoes. The men and women who had designed the missiles had anticipated this, however, and the missiles began to release chaff and flares and maneuvering wildly, making it harder for the point defense computers to gain a firing solution.

One of the torpedoes was struck anyway. The bullet penetrated the spaceframe of the missile and punctured its unstable reactor and volatile burnout capacitors. The torpedo tore itself apart as energy poured into its structural components, and the radiological material of the small fission 'starter' of its nuclear warhead was scattered across space.

The other missiles continued to bore in on their targets, accelerating to terminal distance and detonating, each well within a kilometer of the targeted Vers ship.

Within instants of each other, perfectly spherical flowers of atomic fire blossomed in the cold vacuum of space. Showers of particles pour outward from the detonation point of each weapon at insane velocities, but the storms of radiation released by the warheads outraced even them.

First, the radiation storms struck the Vers ships, stressing their shields with the massive transfer of energy. One after another, within a space of instants, the shields overloaded and failed. Then the particle showers, the rapidly expanding vaporized material of the missiles, struck. It was like being hit by a superheated terrestrial blastwave. The Vers vessels, never designed as warships, crumpled under the power of the atomic blasts, their crew and passengers dying in instants.

"I am become death." O'Kane whispered. "Destroyer of Worlds."

He had done it. He had unleashed the power of the atom on the Vers Empire, upon the wayward children of Terra. Would those petulant children now respond, with their own terrible weapons?

"Clear the datum." O'Kane ordered calmly. "Get us away from the launch site."

He paused, and then opened a line to the Chief of Boat, Alan McCallum. "Alan. How are the men holding up?"

Alan looked at his display, which showed biometric information piped to his station from the crew's flight suits. It also registered an indexed any concerns or comments the men had about the course of the battle. O'Kane knew that if something was amiss, it might only appear in the finely detailed information that an individual crew member was processing, not the general view he had. O'Kane didn't want a problem to go spotted but unreported.

"They're holding up." Alan said. "I think they're ready for some hard acceleration."

"Good." O'Kane said. "Helm, bring us to attack position two."

"Aye aye, Captain." The helmsman said. "Bringing her about now."

As the ship began to rotate, the main plasma drive of the ship kicked in in earnest, pressing the men of the ship into their duty station with a force of more than three gravities.

O'Kane began his breathing exercises. The last thing the ship needed was the moment of confusion an unconscious captain would generate.

As the ship reached a pre-programed point, the plasma drive cut out and the ship released a burst of cold gas, pushing it away from its obvious trajectory, and began to spin as its gyroscopes brought it about to firing position.

"Tactical, status on the torpedo tube?" O'Kane asked.

"All tubes, ready to fire." Von Hayek said.

"Incoming fire!" Ryan Blackwell shouted, from his sensors and stealth station. "ETA five seconds."

"Brace for impact!" O'Kane roared.

Throughout the ship, power was routed to the structural integrity fields. The bonds in the hull of the ship were suddenly hardened by arcane power as the Vers bullets closed. Sensors retreated behind protective hatches, and the railguns along the hull of the ship began firing at the incoming projectiles. Some were hit.

Many weren't.

O'Kane gripped the armrests of his chair as the Vers shells impacted.

The _Odysseus_ vibrated slightly.

Cold gas was vented from the side of the ship, pushing it out of the path of the Vers rounds.

"Damage report!" O'Kane shouted.

"Everything reporting as green!" Alan responded. "Those Vers shells did jack shit."

"Return fire!" O'Kane said. "Fire one, fire two on Hotel Two. Fire three, fire four on Hotel Three. Fire five, fire six on Hotel Four."

"Aye aye." Von Hayek said.

Again, the ship shuddered as torpedoes were fired.

[x]

"...And then there's Utopia, Rhlelotam's personal Kataphrakt." Lin said, looking at Jefferson intently. "I don't know anything about it or its abilities, though, other than that it's huge."

"I see." Jefferson said. "Thank you for your assistance. I'll be leaving you in peace now."

"Wait!" Linaurulotla said. "I... I have a few things I wanted to ask for."

"What?" Jefferson said. "I mean we don't have much here, but..."

"Well, I would like something to read, or something like that." Lin said, looking down. "And I really have to go to the bathroom."

"Um..." Jefferson said. "There's a bathroom down the hall, but I'm not sure how to keep you from..."

"It's okay." Linaurulotla said. "I pledge on my honor as a Knight of Mars that I won't try anything."

Jefferson sighed. "Alright, fine. Just know that the bathroom doesn't lock so if you're lying..."

Linaurulotla blushed. "I'm not! Honor is everything to a Knight." She looked down. "Or at least it's supposed to be."

"What do you mean?" Jefferson said, as he walked over to unlock the door.

"I mean... you've shown more honor by keeping me alive than most of the other Knights I know." Linaurulotla said. "Count Rhlelotam insisted that we take no prisoners, and most of the other knights seemed happy to obey him."

"What about you?" Jefferson asked, opening the door.

"I let a few of your people slip away." Lin admitted.

"We're breaking through the encryption on your Kataphrakt." Jefferson said. "In a few days, well know if you're lying."

"It's okay." Linaurulotla said. "The password to view combat records is 'Glory'."

"Wow." Jefferson said. "Thanks."

"So..."

"Right." Jefferson said.

He walked over to the desk Linaurulotla was attached to and drew a key from his pocket. He inserted it in her handcuffs and unlocked them. He then reached down and drew a different key from his pocket an unlocked her legcuffs.

Linaurulotla stood up and started stretching. "Thank you." She said.

She wasn't sure why, but she felt like she wanted to trust the man opening her handcuffs. Why? He had kidnapped her, dropped her out of an airplane, and hand one of his cronies taze her, then chained her to a desk.

Well, it had been a very low-flying airplane.

[x]

Alec Ryder stood off the road, watching the Vers patrol pass. It consisted of two APCs and more than twenty soldiers on foot, spread out in a highly distributed pattern.

The Vers were looking for something. That much was obvious, at least to a hunter like him. They had vastly stepped up their patrols in lightly inhabited, seemingly unimportant areas, which you didn't do in the normal course of an occupation or peacekeeping operation.

He drew back his bow, his carefully designed camouflage suit not interfering with the pull in the slightest. His bow, a large affair of high-tech composites and mechanical assist systems, had a very high draw, but was very easy to hold.

Alec was a lawyer by profession, but a hunter by passion. He spent a considerable amount of time at his cabin in the woods, hunting with a variety of weapons. His favorite was the bow.

Of course, this was far from simple hunting. If he released his arrow, he would be putting his life on the line. The Vers would kill him if they caught him.

His fingers opened. The bowstring snapped forward with a _twang_, sending the unusually wide and heavy arrow sailing forward. It darted through the air and struck a Vers soldier in the upper chest.

Then it exploded.

The arrow detonated with the force of a hand grenade, sending fragments of metal flying into the nearby Vers soldiers. Most of it was deflected by their armor, but one man took fragments in the face and dropped.

As the Vers soldiers shouted in confusion, Alec drew another arrow and fired.

Another Vers soldier fell as the arrow exploded. Alec waited a few seconds, and then slunk back into the forest.

The second he was out of sight, he returned his bow to its strap on his back and drew his suppressed submachine gun. It wasn't exactly a sporting weapon, but he doubted that the Martian Bastards would know that.

Alec retreated through the forest, listening to the heavy footfalls of the Vers soldiers behind him. He could hear them spreading out, looking for him. Just like he wanted.

He continued running for a few more seconds, then took up position behind a fallen log.

Perhaps thirty seconds later, a Vers soldier walked into sight, rifle at his shoulder, looking around cautiously. Alec waited until he was at point blank range, then fired a five round burst from his submachine gun.

As the suppressed rounds tore into the flexible upper component of the Vers soldier's Armor, Alec was already running. He heard shouts behind him, and he quickly reached a new position.

He paused and closed his eyes, listening. There was a Vers soldier approaching his position, a couple dozen yards to the right. Carefully, Alec stood up and stalked over to near the Vers soldier. The enemy had his back to him.

Alec drew his hunting knife and sprang forward, grabbing the Martian by the head and placing a hand over his mouth while batting the man's gun arm down. He raised his hunting knife and jabbed it into the man's exposed neck.

As the Vers soldier gargled and slumped, Alec released the body, then took a step back, stunned at what he had just done. In cold blood, he had just murdered at least four of his fellow human beings, people he had never met before.

But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he was okay with that. These people had invaded his homeland, broadcasting about how the Terran people needed to be exterminated out of mercy or some such bullshit.

Not as long as he could do something about it.

Alec Ryder bent down and wiped off his knife on the grass. It would be needed in the days ahead.

[x]

Linaurulotla turned towards the door of her cell as it cracked open. Jefferson walked in, a small device in his hands.

"This is an e-reader." He said. "I assume you know how to use it?"

Linaurulotla nodded.

He handed it to her. "I had Christina remove the network antenna and seal the case. If you try anything, I'll have to take it away."

"I won't". Lin said.

Why did she feel so eager to please him? What was it about him?

"Anyway, I loaded it with some of my favorites. _Mistborn, Wheel of Time, _the complete transcripts of the Nuremberg trials, that sort thing, you know?"

"Thank you." Linaurulotla said. "That should help pass the time."

"If you don't mind me asking..." Jefferson said. "How did you come to be a Vers Kataphrakt pilot, anyway?"

Linaurulotla looked away. "It's... complicated. I told you that Count Rhlelotam said we needed everyone with a high Aldnoah affinity, right?"

"No, I mean... why you?" Jefferson said. "What is your story? I just gave you a few hundred. I think one in return is fair."

"Well." Linaurulotla said. "My was an infantry Captain in the Vers Imperial Forces under Emperor Gilzeria, and my mother was a Kataphrakt engineer for Count Rhlelotam. They insisted on taking me with them, even though I was only two Terran years old at the time. My father died when the Hyper Gate exploded and the Moon was destroyed."

"What about your mother? Isn't she going to miss you?" Jefferson asked.

"She's dead." Linaurulotla said. "She died in an accident working on the Count's Personal Kataphrakt when I was ten. Avernus is all I have left of her."

"What do you mean?"

"She designed Avernus." Lin explained, looking down. "But she didn't have the resources to build it on her own. The Count discovered the design when she died, and ordered its construction, allegedly in memory of her."

Jefferson raised an eyebrow. "Allegedly?"

"He told me otherwise when I agreed to become a pilot." Linaurulolta said. "He said it was a good design, and that it was a pity that she didn't come forward with it while she was still alive."

"I wonder why." Jefferson said, raising a hand to his chin. "Anyway, what happened then?"

"I entered Kataphrakt pilot training." Linaurulotla said. "I never hand many friends, but none of the other Knights were my age. This was before the massive surge of young men and women from Mars to bolster the military of the Orbital Knights. In any case, all the Knights were older than I was, and I didn't really make any friends there, either."

"That doesn't sound particularly pleasant."

"It wasn't but what did I care?" Linaurulotla said, smiling weakly. "I was a proud Knight of Mars. What need did I have for friends?"

"Who told you that?" Jefferson asked.

"I did." Linaurulotla said. "I mean... It seemed obvious."

"I see." Jefferson said. "So then what happened?"

Lin shrugged. "I waited for the invasion to start. The Count assured us that it would happen sooner rather than later."

"This Count Rhlelotam." What kind of man is he?" Jefferson asked.

Linaurulotla paused. "He's... a hard man. He executed a lot of people while we were waiting for the Invasion to begin. He likes having people executed. I expect he'll institute martial law in the territories that he captures, and crack down hard."

"That's... troubling." Jefferson muttered. "I wonder..."

"He's not as bad as Count Athogoi, who landed down in South America. That man is an absolute butcher. His rule will be... Barbaric."

"How do you know?"

"He's said so." Lin said.

"Troubling." Jefferson said. Then he pulled a button out of his pocket. "If you need anything, just press this button once."

"Got it." Linaurulotla said. "Don't get killed out there."

"Huh?" Jefferson said. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, well, if you get killed, there won't be anyone to let me out of this cell." Lin said, looking down.

"Don't worry." Jefferson said, as he turned around an opened the door. "I have no intention to."

[x]

"So." Logan said, as Jefferson walked out of the cell into the bare concrete hallway outside. "How did it go?"

Logan was standing opposite the cell door, with Christina next to him. Judging by Christina's scrunched-up expression, Jefferson assumed she was angry about something, but he couldn't imagine what.

"I think it went pretty well." Jefferson said. "I got her to spill the names and specs on her Count's Kataphrakts. Look into what's going on in South America."

"Why?" Logan asked.

"Just an errant thought." Jefferson said. "But I do think we need to start expanding our business."


	5. Chapter 5

**Don't forget to review. For Great Justice!**

**[x]**

**New New York**

Colonel Stevenson sat down at the table. He had been invited to a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff which was, for safety reason, being held in New New York, the old one having been destroyed in the Heaven's Fall.

It was a spartan room, free of most of the fixtures that could be used to hide bugs, not that that stopped the Secret Service and JCS Security from purging the room with EMP generators prior to the meeting. There was a long table down the center of the room, around which most of the assembled personnel sat.

"Alright." President Maximilian Steel said, looking at the assembled men, with a few women scattered through the room. "What is the status on the front?"

"Mr. President." A general said, standing up in front of a digital display showing a map of North America. "As you know, the Vers have landed here, here, and here." He said, pointing at New Orleans, Vancouver, and Juneau.

"As of present, they have captured a large stretch of territory." The General said. "Starting in the South, where the most powerful force appears to be, the enemy is advancing north, using the Dry Line around the One Hundredth Meridian as their western wall, and the western tip of the Appalachian Mountains as their approximate eastern wall. In this area, they have advanced as far north as the Oklahoma-Kansas border. However, we have greatly slowed their rate of advance."

That wasn't good, but it could be worse.

Or at least, that was Stevenson's analysis. Given the power of the Vers Kataphrakts, Stevenson thought that they were lucky that they had held the Martians off until Christmas, which was tomorrow.

Not that anyone was feeling particularly festive.

"In the Northwest, the enemy has captured the states of Washington and Oregon, as well as the most populous regions of British Columbia, and is pushing west into Idaho and Montana. However, we have thus far held them there, and on the northern California border."

"And the status in Alaska?" The President asked.

"Probably the best." The General responded. "The enemy landing site is very difficult to access this time of year, which has limited our response considerable, but it has also slowed the enemy's advance considerably."

Stevenson raised a hand. "What is the status of our forces in the affected regions?"

He already knew the answer, of course, but someone had to broach the topic.

"We have just over one hundred thousand troops in the Alaskan Front, and the Canadians have another fifty thousand." The general said. "On the Cascadia Front, we have two and a half million men, and the Canadians have another one and a half million, bringing our total numbers to four million."

He took a deep breath. "On the Southern Front, we have seven and a half million soldiers. The Mexicans have provided another two and a half million, rounding out total UEF numbers at ten million."

"And we're still being pushed back?" The President exclaimed. "How is that possible?"

"The Martian Kataphrakts outclass ours severely." The Army Service Chief said. "Along with just about everything else we have. As it stands, we have lost to them in every direct engagement we have fought so far, with heavy losses of both men and material."

"By every direct engagement, you're referring to the stolen Kataphrakt, correct?" Stevenson said, leaning back in his seat, and steepling his fingers.

"Yes." The Army Service Chief said. "The Investment in the Werewolf bunkers had paid off, though many of them remain unoccupied."

"But that doesn't solve the underlying problem." The Navy Service Chief said. "And that is stopping the Vers from overrunning our homeland. My submarine fleets stand ready at station, though we have had to keep our surface fleets deployed at fairly high latitudes to avoid Vers orbital strikes."

"Agreed." The Canadian Representative said. "How did these... ''Concerned Citizens' manage to steal a Vers Kataphrakt?"

"They flew away with it." Stevenson said.

"What?" The Mexican Representative said.

"Yes." Stevenson said. "But that's not the point right now. We still need to finish the Global overview."

"Right. Fine." Another General said. "Two Landing Castles have touched down in Europe. They are currently contained, but with heavy losses. The Russians are doing alright, but they have lost a large amount of land, though the lines there have stabilized. The Landing Castle in Japan had gone dark, but details are scarce. Africa is a black hole, but we assume the worst."

"What about the Chinese?" The Air Force Service Chief asked.

The General sighed. "The Chinese went nuclear. They launched a barrage of nuclear-tipped missiles at the Landing Castles in their territory. We know that one got through, to no effect."

"What was the yield they used?" The Army Chief asked.

"One and a half megatons." The General said. "Detonated a mile above and to to the west of the Landing Castle. It had no effect, as far, as we can discern."

There was a short pause.

"After that, they went chemical." The General continued. "They deployed a large but unknown quantity of lingering chemical agents via missile and artillery to the area surrounding the Castle."

"How much?" Someone asked.

"Tons. Hundreds of tons." The General said. "At each landing site."

"What was the effect?" Stevenson asked.

"It seems to to have slowed the Vers operational tempo somewhat." The General said. "But there appears to have been no long-term benefit."

"So that's off the table, for now anyway." Stevenson said. "Political shitstorm if we decide to use them, for no real benefit, at least for now. But if we aren't going to nuke them, what are we going to contain the Vers advance?"

"At present, we are constructing a series of fixed defenses around occupied territory." A General said. "As well as building up our rapid-reaction forces and ballistic missile forces. Every day the Vers wait to launch their next attack gives us more time to harden our defenses and mobilize the Reserve."

"Let's talk strategy." Stevenson said. "That's supposed to be our job, after all. What did these civies do that we didn't that allowed them to capture a Vers Kataphrakt?"

"They didn't try to fight the Kataphrakt." One man said. "The fought the support systems, and they even came at that sideways."

"Exactly." Stevenson said. "They didn't attack directly."

"But how do we turn that into an actionable plan?" President Steel asked. "It seems like a job for Special Forces, but given our lack of success in the air war so far, how would we insert them?"

One of the boys carrying drinks around the table looked up. "Boats, maybe?" He said.

"What do you mean, lad?" President Steel said.

"All three Landing Castles in North America are in coastal regions, and we've still got a lot of submarines." The boy said. "Maybe we could do something with that?"

"I like how you're thinking." Stevenson said.

"We'll launch an investigation into the possibility." The President said. "But that doesn't help us when we do have to face the enemy Kataphrakts directly."

"Well, that Japanese kid took down like three of them." Stevenson said. "What did he do right?"

"He deciphered the functions of their weapons systems and attacked them with a cadre of elite pilots." A General said.

"A cadre of elite pilots?" The President said. "I thought he was a high school student."

"He was, with some of the highest piloting scores in the world." The General said. "My department has launched a thorough investigation."

"I see." Stevenson said. "So what we need to do is use the information we have on the Vers Kataphrakts to devise plans of attack that will exploit their weakness to great effect."

"What information?" A Colonel asked. "We barely know anything. Most of the units that have encounter the Kataphrakts directly at close range have been destroyed."

"The captured pilot sung like a canary." Stevenson said.

"Why am I only hearing about this now?" President Steel demanded.

"We heard something like fifteen minutes ago." Stevenson responded.

"So, we come up with special attack plans for each Kataphrakt and distribute them to the troops." The President said. "Now, I want you honest opinions. Can we beat these guys?"

There was silence for a moment.

"What choice do we have?" The Army Chief said.

[x]

**Werewolf Base**

Jefferson looked up from his laptop computer. He was in the hangar bay of the Werewolf Base, examining the Martian Kataphrakt Avernus. Christina sat next to him, tapping away at her own computer.

"This is a fascinating machine, huh." Christina said. "Light years ahead of ours, to be sure."

"Yeah." Jefferson said. "Thank God they don't have very many of them."

"People?" Lucinda said, walking into the hanger. "What have we gotten so far?"

"Well, I've managed to pull a fair bit from the main computer." Christina said. "But it wiped a lot of its most sensitive data when I made my first system probe. I guess _someone_ didn't mention that."

"I suppose not." Jefferson said. "I've been examining the mechanical systems. The Aldnoah Drive makes no sense to me, and a lot of it seems pretty arcane, but I've done a fair bit of documentation, and it should be helpful in the next packet to High Command."

"That's great." Lucinda said. "But do you know what day it is today?"

"No." Jefferson said.

"It's Christmas Eve!" Lucinda explained. "I was thinking we could break out some of the special rations, you know, take a break from training and stuff, and maybe have a little celebration."

"Do we have time for that?" Jefferson asked. "I mean, I doubt that the Vers take a Christmas Break."

"I think it's a good idea." Christina said. "After all, we need to remember what we're fighting for. It can't be all war all the time."

"Fair enough." Jefferson said.

"You know." Christina said. "Sometimes, I'm shocked at what's happened these past few weeks. I mean, we've all killed people now. We're living in a bunker and fighting invaders, like characters out of some kind of movie."

Jefferson laughed. It felt good. He hadn't had a good laugh in far too long. "Who would want to watch us?" He said.

"I don't know." Lucinda said. "I mean, it could be pretty interesting."

[x]

Jefferson paused at the door to Linaurulolta's cell. He wasn't sure why he was visiting the Martian girl again so soon, but it seemed like the right thing to do. He cracked the door and stuck his head into the room.

"Hello, Lin?" He said.

"Oh, hello Jefferson." Linaurulotla said. "How are you today?"

"I'm alright." Jefferson said.

Linaurulolta was lying on her bed with her e-reader on the floor in front of her, kicking her legs in the air.

"I was wondering," Jefferson began, "If you would like to come to our Christmas party. It isn't much, but we're going to make a tree out of some camo gear and break out some of the better rations."

"I'd love to come." Lin said, smiling. "But what is Christmas?"

"You don't know... Well, I guess you wouldn't." Jefferson said. "Christmas is one of the largest celebrations of Terran year. Some of us celebrate the Birth of Christ, the central figure in Christianity, the dominant religion in this part of the world, but it's also a celebration of brotherhood and goodwill towards your fellow men."

"Sounds fun." Linaurulolta said, smiling. "Am I your date?"

Jefferson's face reddened slightly. "No. It's not that sort of event."

"Oh." Linaurulolta said.

"I've been meaning to ask." Jefferson said, walking into the room. "You don't seem much like the other Martians I've seen on TV and stuff. Why is that?"

Linaurulolta frowned and sighed. "It's a long story."

"I've got some time."

"I suppose it started with my mother." Lin began. "She never really bought into the Propaganda that Emperor Gilzeria put out. Or at least that's what I think, given how she raised me."

"And how was that?" Jefferson asked, sitting down on the bed next to Linaurulolta.

"Well, I suppose." Linaurulolta said. "She was busy with her work, but she always made time for me. She was the one who first showed me Terran literature, and she told me that it was more worth reading than the propaganda works that Mars produced."

"She sounds like a good woman." Jefferson said, then frowned. "You said she died in an accident?"

"Yes." Lin said. "It was a malfunction of the Utopia's Aldnoah drive. I don't know the specifics, but it killed her and three technicians. I was devastated. I still miss her."

"That's okay." Jefferson said. "I Mean, I think I would still miss my parents, if I could remember them."

"I suppose so." Lin said. "Anyway, by that point, the damage was done. I had fallen far enough away from the Vers Imperial doctrine to be able to accept it. I mean, sure, the Martian Immigration Program didn't do enough to support the first colonists, but is that really worth killing all Terrans over? It seemed to me like a collaborative policy would be the best option."

"I know what you mean." Jefferson said. "A war like this...Very few things are worth this. But, if you didn't agree with Martian policy, how did you become a Knight?"

"I kept my thoughts to myself." Linaurulolta said. "My mother always said to from my own opinion, but someplace like Castle Rhlelotam, to keep them to myself. I guess it paid off, huh."

"Well, I suppose that depends on your definition of paid off." Jefferson said. "But I see what you mean."

"What about you?" Linaurulolta asked. "You don't seem to hate Martians as much as I'd expect from a Terran. Why is that?"

"I don't know." Jefferson said. "I mean, I've killed Martians, now, and I really don't feel anything."

He looked down at his hands. "I know you're supposed to feel something when you kill someone, but I just... Didn't. And I don't know what that means. But maybe that's why I don't hate you, either."

Neither of them said anything for a moment.

"I don't really know how to respond to that." Lin said at last.

"But... Killing without remorse or regret... Does that make me a monster?" Jefferson asked.

Distantly, he was aware that showing this sort of psychological weakness to an enemy was probably a bad idea. She could potentially exploit it to manipulate him, to weaken his resolve.

On the other hand, she was locked in a cell, and none of the others seemed to show any interest in talking to her. It _could_ be for the best that he reveal his weakness to her rather than one of the others. For their sake, he had to stay strong.

Or at least fake it.

"I don't think that makes you a monster." Linaurulolta said at last, looking up at Jefferson. "If you were a monster, I don't think you'd worry so much about what you were. Clearly, you still care."

Jefferson smiled faintly. "Thanks. But I worry that, to win this war, a monster is exactly what we need."

"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster." Lin said.

"And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." Jefferson finished. "You know, a Terran said that."

"Nietzsche was a nut." Lin responded. "But he was right about that. And some of the Martian Counts and their servants are monsters. Having seen their behavior on Earth, I think I realize that now. But even if you chose to fight them, I don't think you should chose to turn into a monster."

"Why would you care?" Jefferson asked, frowning.

"You seem like a good person." Linaurulolta said. "I think it's a shame when something good is corrupted."

[x]

The six children sat down around a table in the bare central area of the base, which was still filled with crates, through a small area had been cleared around the table the children presently occupied. A large chunk of preserved meat sat on a plate in the center of the table drenched in sauces, and in front of each of the children sat the unidentifiable choice bits of an MRE.

"Let's eat." Jefferson said. "But let us not forget the spirit in which we gather, or the purpose that drives us to eat this... Food."

Everyone nodded and dug in. It was nutritious, if nothing else.

"So." Lucinda said. "I wonder how things are going down in town. I miss my mom."

"You haven't brought her up much." Christina said. "I mean, Jefferson is pretty much all the family I have, so I don't really mind hiding up here, but I figured that you guys mind have some problems with missing your families and such."

"We were never very close." Lucinda said. Particularly not recently. I mean, the past few years, she's been really busy with her work, so we didn't really spend much time together. So there's that."

"I miss my family." Isabella said. "I understand why we have to stay up here, but can't we go see them, or bring them up here?"

"No contact." Jefferson said, looking down. "We need to maintain that policy. If the Vers have any reason to believe that your family, Lucinda, or your family, Logan, is connected to insurgent activity, they'd become prime targets for reprisal killings. It's for their own good. And we can't bring them here because they're probably safer keeping their heads down out there than were are here."

"Jefferson is right." Logan said. "I miss my brothers worse than... something that misses people a lot, but I understand that we can't see them until all this is over."

"I just wish I could have said goodbye." Isabella said. "One day, everything was normal, and now we may never see them again."

There was a moment of quiet. The sounds of halfhearted eating filled the air, despite everyone's best efforts to keep silent.

"This is really good." Linaurulolta said at last, breaking the awkward quite.

"Um... Are you on crack?" Logan asked, glancing at Lin. "This stuff kinda sucks."

"No, its way better than the food we had on the Landing Castles." Lin said.

"I shudder to ask this, but what kind of food did you have?" Jefferson asked.

"Algae, mostly." Lin said.

"Like, seaweed?" Logan asked, wrinkling his nose.

"Worse, actually." Christina said. "Think of it as a sort of disgusting plant paste."

Jefferson was stunned for a moment. "You lived off of that?"

"Yes." Linaurulolta said.

"But what about the aid shipments we sent up to the Castles?" Lucinda asked.

"Count Rhlelotam sold his to the other counts." Lin explained. "It's part of why he can afford an army large enough to garrison a territory the size of North America."

"Interesting." Christina said.

"I like food." Logan said. "I think it would suck to be a Martian, if that's what you have to live off of."

"You know what I like?" Lucinda said.

"What?" Isabella asked.

"The sky." Lucinda said. "I love everything about it. The color, the light, and the fact that we all live under one sky. It's like something we all share."

"Not anymore." Lin muttered. "Some of us never got a sky."

"That's a shame." Lucinda responded. "Growing up without being able to see the sky."

"You said you liked the color." Isabella said. "Why is that?"

"I don't really know." Lucinda said. "It's calming, I guess, and nice to look at. Isn't that enough reason to like a color?"

"I suppose so." Lin said. "We didn't have many blue things up on the Castles. I the first time I saw the color was the first morning of the Invasion."

There was quiet for a moment.

"It's too bad we can't exchange gifts." Lucinda said.

"That's a Christmas custom." Jefferson explained, leaning toward Lin as he gave his explanation.

Jefferson's phone pinged. He reached into his pocket and removed the device and looked at it, then frowned. "We've got a call incoming on the secure military network."

"From who?" Isabella asked, tilting her head.

"It says the sender is called Area 88." Jefferson said, picking up the call.

"Hello?" Jefferson said. "Who is this?"

"This is Colonel Galloway of Area 88, USAF." He man on the other end of the phone said. "At 1800 hours today, against my better judgment, I permitted an aircraft carrying several key scientists and their Special Forces bodyguards to level my installation, with the intent of parachuting the personnel into your vicinity."

"Why would they want to do that?" Jefferson asked.

"The Kataphrakt you stole. The scientists want to examine it." Colonel Galloway said.

"That's flattering." Jefferson said. "Why are you contacting us?"

"It came to my attention, at 1857 hours that the group had landed safely, but had come into contact with Vers forces. I need you to get them out of there and back to your base."

"Yes, sir." Jefferson said. "Well move out immediately."

"Godspeed and good hunting. I'll send you all the details I have over a secure comms flash." Colonel Galloway said, and then he hung up.

"Ladies, gentlemen, we've got a mission." Jefferson said. "Christina, get Lin back to her cell. Everybody else, suit up."

"Wait!" Linaurulolta said. "Why can't I watch the mission with Christina?"

"Because you're an enemy prisoner." Logan said. "We can't have you potentially gaining valuable intelligence."

"Oh." Lin said.

[x]

Jefferson looked up at his Personal Armor Unit, suspended from the arming device. He was wearing his skintight piloting suit, the cooling vents cold on his skin.

It looked like a smaller, bulkier, version of the KG-7 Areion, built to just barely fit a person inside. This one was painted in a forest green camouflage pattern, optimal for guerrilla warfare, and armed with a .50 caliber machine gun with an underslung grenade launcher, and two RPGs on its back.

Pressing the button that commanded the armor to kneel, Jefferson walked up to it as the back opened and stepped in.

As the armor assembled and tightened around him, Jefferson considered what he was about to do.

The team he was being sent in to recuse was in active contact with the enemy. That meant that he was likely going to need to kill again, or else he, along with some good men, would die.

Jefferson clenched his fist, feeling the servos and artificial musculature of the suit respond to his will. Why didn't the taking of human lives bother him? Sure, he knew that the Vers deserved to die for invading his homeland, but it just seemed like...

He wasn't sure what it was supposed to feel like. He looked over at Logan, who was suiting up in the arming rig next to him. He had to stay strong. For Christina, and for Logan, and for Lucinda and Isabella. For them, he would become like iron.

The helmet lowered over his head and a green light appeared in the corner of Jefferson's vision. He stepped forward out of the arming rig, shaking the connecting cables off as he walked forward toward the vehicle bay. He was ready.

[x]

**Outside Smalltown, Texas**

"Alright." Christina said over the intercom. "The friendly forces are holed up in a farmhouse a few miles from your current position. The Vers don't know where they are, but they have search element closing in on the position."

"We need to eliminate the search elements, load up the stuff the DARPA guys need, and then get out of here before they send a Kataphrakt." Logan said. He was driving their vehicle, a transport for troops in Personal Armor Units disguised as a truck. "We can take out a lot of these losers with our armor, but we're not invincible."

"Right." Jefferson said. "Get in, kill, and get out. Nothing to it."

Lucinda and Isabella nodded.

"You're almost at the drop off point." Christina said. "I wish I could be out there with you."

"We need someone on mission control." Jefferson said. "You're the best person for the job."

"Yeah, but..."

The truck stopped under a bridge. The back door opened. Jefferson stood up and unslung his machine gun. "Let's move, people."

Jefferson and the girls disembarked from the truck, and Logan got out of the driver's seat. All of them were wearing helmets, obscuring their identity more effectively than the dark of the night, but Jefferson could easily identity his friends based on their body shapes and gaits.

Logan waved in the direction of the friendly position. He was carrying his sniper rifle and a pair of rocket launchers. Lucinda was carrying a heavy rifle with a grenade launcher, and a Javelin on her back, and Isabella was carrying the same machine gun with grenade launcher as Jefferson, but with a Stinger on her back.

As one, the group ignited their jetpacks and took off in a low, bounding leap up the embankment next to the bridge. They cut out their thrust as they reached the top, then took off at a run.

Once you got going in a Personal Armor Unit, you could really move. The synthetic musculature and servomotors whirred as team broke twenty miles an hour, barely breaking a sweat.

At that pace, it barely took them a few minutes to reach the first Vers Scouting team. Jefferson crouched behind a stone wall along the road as the heard the sound of a vehicle moving nearby. He peaked up above the wall and spotted a squad of ten Vers soldiers walking along the road, which was slightly below his position, alongside a Vers IFV, which looked like an armored version on one of their trucks, like a beetle crawling along the ground.

"I'll take out the APC." Jefferson said over the group's Joint Tactical Network. "Everybody else, eliminate the soldiers."

"Roger that." Logan said, raising his sniper rifle.

Each of the girls moved a short distance down the wall, taking up positions a few yards away from the boys. Jefferson slung his machine gun and drew a rocket launcher from his back and leveled it at the Vers IFV. The air was calm tonight and the target was moving slowly. Hitting the target wouldn't be difficult.

"Now." Jefferson muttered, pulling the trigger on the RPG.

As the rocket leapt from the tube and soared towards the enemy APC, the rest of the group opened up. The chatter of automatic weapons fire filled the air as five Vers soldiers were reduced to bloody ruins.

The surviving soldiers dove for cover as the rocket struck. It exploded in a cloud of dust, smoke, and flame as it sent a jet of plasticized metal boring through the side armor of the Vers vehicle.

As the beetle-like fighting vehicle shuttered, Jefferson switched weapons as his teammates took the Vers survivors under fire. He was just getting his machine gun ready to fire when the last of the Vers soldiers went down, a .50 caliber round puncturing his body armor.

"We need to move!" Jefferson said. "They'll be sending more assets this way in a hurry."

Each of the group members stood up and began reloading their weapons. The moment that was done, they ignited their jetpacks and took off down the hill in the same direction the Vers soldiers had been headed.

The group of four advanced in a bouncing gait, their jetpacks pushing them forwards and upwards as they bounded across the ground at considerable speed.

"People, we have a problem." Christina announced. "The hostiles just found the targets. They are advancing in company strength with vehicle support. You have five minutes to get in there before they demolish the farmhouse and eliminate the friendlies."

"We've got to hurry, people." Logan said. "Let's move."

"Lucinda, get that Javelin ready." Jefferson said.

The team's jetpacks flared, and they increased their speed. As they advanced, Jefferson scanned the area with his infrared vision gear. There was a large heat signature advancing down the road towards the farmhouse.

"Javelin up." Jefferson said.

Lucinda went down into a crouch and drew the portable missile launcher. Isabella stood next to her, feeding her suit targeting data as Jefferson watched the Vers tank.

"Fire." He said, as the tank came into position.

With a thump, the missile was expelled from the launcher. Its main rocket motor ignited with a whooshing sound, as the projectile took off in wash of rocket exhaust. As the exhaust washed over the team, who were unaffected thanks to their Powered Armor, Lucinda began to reload the Javelin launch tube.

The missile detonated against the Vers tank in the distance. Jefferson watched as a massive bloom of heat appeared in his infrared vision.

"Let's move." He said, as Lucinda finished reloading the Javelin.

The team took off at a run, not using their jetpacks this time. This close to the objective, the enemy could have infrared sensors in the area, ready to reveal their presence.

As they moved, they spotted the farmhouse. No lights were on, and it appeared to be abandoned.

"That's our target." Jefferson said. "Now, we just have to hope that-"

At that moment, the sound of gunfire filled the air. Jefferson watched as muzzle flashes appeared in the upper windows of the farmhouse, and bullets began impacting in the paneling around the windows.

Seconds later, a pair of Vers APCs appeared in Jefferson's field of view, rolling towards the house. One of them fired a burst from its chaingun, shredding wood.

"Javelin!" Jefferson shouted, reaching for his own RPG. "Now!"

As the turret of one of the APCs rotated, Jefferson brought his own anti-tank weapon to bear on the enemy. He drew a bead on the vehicle and pulled the trigger. The rocket launched, rushing towards the Vers IFV.

Jefferson sprang into motion, running away from the launch site of the rocket as the Vers soldiers began to return fire. As the rocket impacted, punching through the side armor of the Vers transport, the turret of the surviving vehicle began to rotate towards him.

Diving flat as the bullets began cracking overhead, Jefferson began to crawl to the side, desperately looking at his radar for cover that would protect him from the torrent of Vers projectiles. His armor could stop a few of them, but eating a stream like that would tear him apart.

As Jefferson crawled, he heard the characteristic sound of a Javelin launch over the torrent of Vers bullets.

The Javelin missile that Lucinda launched shot across the short distance to the Vers IVF and exploded, engulfing the vehicle in a cloud of smoke. The chaingun fire stopped.

"Now!" Jefferson said.

He raised his machine gun and opened fire on the Vers infantry that had surrounded the APCs. At the same time, muzzle flashes appeared again in the upper window of the hose, taking the Vers soldiers under fire from a different angle.

Jefferson climbed to his feet and began to advance toward the enemy, not firing. A bullet _clanged_ off his armor, but he barely felt it. The Vers soldiers were suppressed, and firing blind. Jefferson took up a position behind a tree and held his machine gun out to the side, opening fire.

The Vers soldiers returned fire, their bullets lodging themselves in the wood of the tree with a series of dull thumps.

As he switched mags, Jefferson felt incredible. Adrenaline flooded every cell of his body and, as another bullet bounced off his armor, he stepped out from behind the tree and popped a grenade off at a concentration of enemy muzzle flashes. The Vers had dominated the battlefield for too long. It was about time someone put the fear of God and Terra into them.

The grenade detonated, eliciting a chorus of screams from the Vers soldiers. Jefferson reached down to his belt and pulled out a smoke grenade and tossed it in front of him.

As smoke flooded the air, making vision nearly impossible, Jefferson began to advance, reloading his machine gun as he did so. He charged into the cloud of smoke, bullets flying all around him, and emerged on the other side.

The first Vers soldier he saw had a look of pure shock on his face as Jefferson sprang towards him with Power Armor enhanced speed and swung his gauntleted left hand in a horizontal chop towards the man's exposed neck, smashing it.

Jefferson raised his machine gun with his other hand and opened fire on a group of Vers soldiers taking cover behind the flaming hulk of the APC. His accuracy was horrible, but that didn't matter; all he needed to do was pin them down.

As one of their head exploded, courtesy of Logan and his sniper rifle, Jefferson put both hands on his rifle and crouched, running towards the burning APC. He inched towards the corner of the vehicle and raised his machine gun, spraying fire around at the Versians hiding on the other side.

The last of the men went down, and Jefferson looked back at the farmhouse. It was in bad shape, riddled as it was with bullet holes, but building codes had been substantially increased following the Heaven's Fall, and it was still standing.

Looking around as he did so, Jefferson advanced towards the house. He kicked in the front door, which resembled a piece of Swiss cheese, and entered.

"Hello?" He shouted, using his suit's voice amplification systems. "We're friendly. He said.

The barrel of a rifle appeared at the top of the stairs, followed by a man in a U.S. Infantry BDU. He was covered in dust and bleeding from a cut on his face.

"Hey." He said. "Who are you?"

"I'm your relief." Jefferson said. He paused. He didn't want to use his real name in the field. "Call me Phantom."

"Fine." The man said. "What's the situation?"

"We've eliminated the Vers forces in the area, but they'll be sending more soon." Jefferson said. "We need to move."

"Alright." The soldier said. "We've got some scientists with us that we need to escort somewhere. Do you-"

"I know." Jefferson said. "That's me."

"Did you really-"

"Yes." Jefferson said. "Do you have wounded?"

"Yes." The man said. "Everyone who's left. But we're all mobile. We've got a vehicle set up with our gear out back ready to go."

"Gear?" Jefferson asked.

"Science stuff." The soldier responded. "We dropped with tons of the stuff. We hotwired a truck and got the most important stuff loaded up when they found us."

"Alright." Jefferson said. "My team is waiting outside. Let's move."

[x]

Moments later, three U.S. Soldiers and five DARPA scientist were loaded into a large farm truck, along with dozens of drop crates of what Jefferson was told was scientific gear.

"You sure you can keep up?" The first man Jefferson had spoken to asked.

"I'm good." Jefferson said. "We need to move."

"If you've got the friendlies, then skedaddle." Christina said. "I'm hearing reports of something headed your way."

Jefferson waved forward, and the vehicle began to move. He took off at a trot, the ignited his jetpack and began to use that as the truck accelerated. His HUD alerted him as the rest of his team fell into formation around him, escorting them back to their truck.

It was a terse few minutes, but they reached their trunk under the bridge without incident. They pulled the farm truck into position under the bridge, and the U.S. soldiers climbed out.

"We need to move this cargo." Logan said. "The Vers will be looking for this vehicle."

When one of the wounded soldiers got up to help, Isabella shook her head. "Don't. You're injured. We've got this."

Jefferson picked up one of the large crates and walked it over to the truck. It was heavy, but not more than he could handle in his armor. The others joined him as the U.S. soldiers moved over to the truck. The scientist chipped in with moving the lighter crates, and in a very short period of time, they had the truck loaded up.

Lucinda removed her armored gloves and attached a remote-driving rig to the wheel and pedals of the farm truck and tossed a block of C4 into the driver's seat. As its engine started and Christina drove it away remotely, the rest of the party loaded up into the other truck. They waited for a few minutes, then Logan drove them off in the opposite direction.

In the back of the truck, Jefferson took a deep breath and removed his helmet.

"Hey." He said. "So what brings you gentleman out here?"

"We've come to examine an example of an Aldnoah powered Kataphrakt apparently captured by partisan forces." One of the scientist said.

"That would be us." Jefferson said. "We've got the pilot, too, in case she's of any interest."

"Oh, she is." The scientist said. "I'm Doctor Mark Franklin. Nice to meet you. So, how did you know to come bail us out?"

"Colonel Galloway called and asked us to." Jefferson said. "We were in the neighborhood, so we decided to respond."

"Thanks." The first soldier Jefferson had spoken to, a tall black man, said. "If you hadn't taken out those APCs, we would have been toast. I'm Sargent Jeff Williams, Green Berets. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Likewise." Lucinda said.

"We lost a lot of good men." Williams said. "Thanks for bailing us out."

"You said that you're a Green Beret, right?" Jefferson asked.

"That is correct." Williams said.

"Thank God." Jefferson said. "Someone who actually knows what they're doing can take over this lash-up."

"About that." Williams said. "You are Jefferson Ablar, the one who captured that Kataphrakt right?"

"Yes." Jefferson said. "That's me."

"Well, the President ordered a direct commission for you, the man who stole a Vers Kataphrakt."

Jefferson's face went blank. "How did you figure out who I was?" He said.

"You swiped your military ID at the Werewolf Bunker." Williams said. "You were the only one who was a full Reservist, so for military purposes, you were leading the operation."

"Wait." Logan said over the Joint Tactical Network, his voice echoing out of Jefferson's helmet on the crate next to him. "You're saying that the President made him an officer?"

"That is correct." Williams said.

"Damnit!" Logan said. "You realize that I shot like, everyone we needed dead to make that plan work?"

"Sometimes that's not the most important thing in the success of an operation." One of the other Green Berets, a Corporal named Damon Weiss, said. "In fact, usually-"

"Please don't hurt his feelings." Jefferson said. "He can be useful sometimes."

"Fair enough." Weiss said.

"Hey." Logan said.

"Anyway." Williams said, reaching into his pocket and removing a cylindrical case. "Here's your commission. Congratulations, lieutenant."

"Thank you." Jefferson said, reaching out and gingerly accepting the case with his power armored fingers. "I think."

"Just to be clear, I'm just as unhappy about this as you are." Williams said. "But what are your orders, sir?"


End file.
